Steven Tepper

Steven Tepper assumed the Hamilton presidency on July 1, 2024, after serving 10 years as dean and director of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. A sociologist, Tepper is a leading writer and speaker on higher education and U.S. cultural policy, and his work has fostered national discussions about cultural engagement, creative work and careers, art and democracy, and the transformative possibilities of a 21st century creative campus.

Tepper is the author of Not Here, Not Now, Not That! Protest Over Art and Culture in America (University of Chicago, 2011), and co-editor and contributing author of Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America’s Cultural Life (Routledge, 2007), an exploration of what it means to participate in the arts in contemporary society. “The Creative Campus: Who’s Number 1,” a cover story for The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2004, helped launch the creative campus movement across the U.S. He has published widely on education and careers. In addition to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Tepper’s work has appeared in Inside Higher Ed, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and more.

Prior to joining Arizona State, Tepper was on the faculty at Vanderbilt University where he was a key architect of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, a national think tank for cultural policy and creativity. He also worked as deputy director and lecturer of sociology and public policy at the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at Princeton University.

Tepper holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a doctorate in sociology from Princeton University.