[1] Tepper was previously the deputy director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, associate director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, and dean and director of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.

Tepper holds a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1989), where he served as senior class president.

[3] While pursuing his PhD at Princeton University, Steven Tepper helped launch the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, serving as associate and then deputy director from 1998 to 2004. and working directly with Center faculty directors Paul DiMaggio and Stan Katz.

[6] Tepper's work on creative graduates has challenged the "starving artist" myth and has been covered widely.

[15] The Hamilton College Board of Trustees unanimously elected Tepper in January 2024, following a nationwide search that included input from faculty, students, and alumni.

[22] In 2011, he was interviewed by Jeffrey Brown on PBS NewHour to discuss his research on cultural conflict.