School of Medicine
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Wayne Kepner
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioWayne Kepner, PhD, MPH is a public health researcher whose work examines how addiction treatment systems can be organized to support long-term recovery. He is an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he holds a NIDA Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01DA067040) as principal investigator. The award funds a five-year study of how medications for opioid use disorder and mutual help groups fit together in addiction treatment, along with development of a user-centered intervention to bridge the two. Dr. Keith Humphreys serves as his primary mentor and Dr. Mark McGovern as co-mentor. Dr. Kepner joined the Stanford faculty in 2026 after completing the school's NIDA T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Pain and Substance Use.
Dr. Kepner received his doctoral degree from the Joint Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Research on Substance Use at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego, and he holds an MPH from San Diego State University. His doctoral research addressed substance use disorders, health services utilization, and geospatial analysis of health data, with particular attention to older adult populations. Across more than thirty peer-reviewed publications, he has studied the implementation of low-threshold opioid treatment, emergency department utilization for substance-related diagnoses, national trends in stimulant and cannabis use, and harm reduction for older adults in opioid treatment programs. He works in both qualitative and quantitative traditions, with interviews of people who use drugs alongside analyses of large electronic health record and national survey datasets. Journalists at the Washington Post, CNN, and Forbes have covered his research, and the Urban Institute cited his work on stigma in its analysis of Oregon's Measure 110.
Alongside his academic work, Dr. Kepner maintains an active commitment to recovery communities and community-based organizations. He co-founded Aztecs For Recovery, the collegiate recovery program at San Diego State University, and he now advises SMART Recovery USA and Narcotics Anonymous World Services on research. He also serves on the board of the Asian American Drug Abuse Program, where he advises the implementation of a $20 million state grant to expand behavioral health services for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
