Office of the Vice President for Engagement

William B. Stephan, Vice President

Bill Stephan serves as Indiana University’s vice president for engagement, a new role established in 2007 by President Michael McRobbie. Bill’s charge is to coordinate and connect the university’s vast intellectual and creative resources with strategic opportunities that foster Indiana’s economic growth and enhance the quality of life for all Hoosiers.

An Indiana native, Bill is an attorney by profession with extensive experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Early in his career, Bill served as chief magistrate at the Marion County Juvenile Court, where he presided over juvenile delinquency, child abuse and neglect, domestic relations and criminal cases. Stephan helped plan and develop the county’s new juvenile court and detention center buildings and assisted in implementing the court’s automated information system—one of the first such systems in the country.

In 1992, Bill joined the administration of former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, where he helped direct social and workforce policy. While in the mayor’s office, Bill worked extensively with community leaders, state and federal authorities, and local and national private philanthropic foundations to help advance the mayor’s Building Better Neighborhoods initiative, which became a national model for strengthening low-income neighborhoods. Bill later served as chief of staff and special counsel to the mayor.

Stephan also served as president & CEO of the Indianapolis Private Industry Council (IPIC), the state’s largest local workforce development organization with responsibility for workforce development policy, planning and brokering of human capital resources. While at IPIC, Bill partnered with the hotel and hospitality industry to create job training and career development programs that helped secure a $30 million grant from the Lilly Endowment for expansion of the Indianapolis Convention Center.

In 2000, Bill joined Indiana University as assistant vice president for economic development in the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology at a time when the university was attracting international recognition for advances in information technology and establishing the new School of Informatics. He later served as vice president for public affairs and government relations (with a title change to vice president for university relations and corporate partnerships in 2003), where he helped craft the university’s strategic plan for economic development.

Early in 2005, Bill became senior vice president for corporate communications and community relations for Clarian Health—Indiana University’s health care partner and one of the nation’s largest health care systems. He returned to IU in the fall of 2007 as vice president for engagement and also serves as the university’s corporate liaison to Clarian as the two institutions align resources and strategic objectives in the life and health sciences.

Bill holds a B.S. in economics from Arizona State University and a J.D. from Indiana University. He and his wife, Carol, have two children, both of whom are students at IU.