Steven grew up with his siblings at their family home, first in Santa Monica, and later in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles.
He earned a bachelor's degree in History at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1974, and prepared to follow his father into the hotel business.
He spent five years working in a variety of sales and operations positions at Hilton hotels in Georgia, Alabama and California.
[3] During his years with the foundation, Hilton has honed the foundation's focus onto 11 priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance abuse, helping children affected by HIV and AIDS, supporting transition-age youth in foster care, preventing avoidable blindness, disaster relief and recovery, hospitality workforce development, improving the lives of multiple sclerosis patients, supporting Catholic education, and extending Conrad Hilton’s support for the work of Catholic Sisters.
The foundation also introduced the annual Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, which is awarded to a nonprofit organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering.
Hilton accompanied aid workers to the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince, and the epicenter in the area of Léogâne 16 miles to the west.
[6] Since 2012, the Hilton Foundation has funded relief efforts for the Syrian refugee crisis—the largest population displacement since World War II.
[8] Hilton also took a personal interest in the effort to relocate the foundation from an office building in Los Angeles to a permanent campus in Agoura Hills 40 miles to the northwest.
[12] Over his 30 years with the foundation, Steven Hilton has received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Pepperdine University, and has been honored by St. Joseph Center and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society through its Southern California Chapter.
He also served on the boards of the Archdiocesan Finance Council, the BEST Foundation, Loyola Marymount University, Southern California Grantmakers, and St. Joseph Center.