Elisa Stephens

Elisa Stephens
Born	1959 San Francisco
Residence	San Francisco
Citizenship	American
Education	BA and JD
Alma mater	Vassar College and University of San Francisco
Occupation	Lawyer and university president
Years active	1992 to present
Title	President of Academy of Art University
Board member of	Smithsonian National Board
Website	Academy of Art University

Elisa Stephens (born 1959) is a California lawyer and the president of Academy of Art University.

Stephens attended the Crystal Springs Uplands School, a private high school located in Hillsborough, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts in political science at Vassar College. Stephens received her JD from the University of San Francisco in 1985. From 1985 to 1986, she served as a law Clerk at the San Francisco Superior Court.

After passing the California State Bar, Stephens worked as in-house counsel at Cellular Holdings, Inc., as a contributing editor to Barclays Law Publishers, and as counsel for the Academy of Art University until 1992. She is the third generation of Stephens to own and operate the university. Her grandfather, Richard S. Stephens, founded the university in 1929, and her father, Richard A. Stephens, became President of the university in 1951. Stephens herself became President of the university in 1992. Since the beginning of her tenure, Stephens has increased the student enrollment at the university by more than ninefold. She has also aligned the university with technological developments in the artistic industries, offering new courses for new technologies that are shaping those industries. Stephens also developed the country’s first accredited online professional and fine art education program. Under her tenure, the university has become the largest privately owned university of art and design in the United States. Stephens is also a contributor to the Huffington Post.

Stephens is an avid collector of antique cars, which are exhibited in the university's Classic Car Collection museum. Stephens began her personal collection in the 1990s, focusing on the period of cars produced in the 1930s.

Stephens resides in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Her house has been described as "a work of art" by the San Francisco Chronicle. Historically known as the 'Jewel Box', it was built in 1913 for a San Francisco bachelor. Legend says there once was a tunnel that ran under California Street from the residence’s bar room to what is now the Pacific-Union Club, so that mistresses could enter and leave the residence without drawing attention. According to the Chronicle, it "stands as a tribute to Bay Area high society". Stephens shares the Beaux Arts style home with her husband and their son. In 2015 Stephens was named to the Haute 100 by Haute Magazine in the Commanders category, citing her university presidency and her position on the Smithsonian National Board as of 2014.

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