The Hellman Foundation is deeply committed to community centered approaches grounded in the values and practices of trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking. In 2022, with a goal to advance community leadership and cede grantmaking power to local Bay Area leaders, the Hellman Foundation team created a Community Panel to collaboratively review proposals and determine funding recommendations. We continue to learn from, evolve, and apply our Community Panel model, which has already strengthened the impact of our collective work. ​

Community Panel

Steven Chen, MD (he/him)
​ Recipe4Health - Alameda County
Dr. Steven Chen (he/him) is Chief Medical Officer of Alameda County Recipe4Health, an award-winning “food as medicine” model. Steven’s experiences as a son of immigrants and a second-generation Taiwanese American have informed his commitment to serve vulnerable populations. He developed integrative medicine services to offer acupuncture and osteopathic manipulative medicine services in Federally Qualified Health Centers. Steven also serves on the Board of Integrative Medicine for the Underserved, is active on California’s Medically Supportive Food and Nutrition Steering Committee, has helped craft two bills for the California legislature, and has testified to the U.S. Congressional House Rules Committee Roundtable on Food as Medicine. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University and Stanford School of Medicine, Steven is a board-certified family medicine physician who completed his residency training at UCSF San Francisco General Hospital. ​

​Dr. Chen joined the Community Panel in 2024.