School of the Art Institute of Chicago President Elissa Tenny Elected AICAD Board Chair

November 11, 2021

CHICAGO—The Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) elected Elissa Tenny, president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), as the new chair of its board of trustees. After previously holding the vice chair position on AICAD’s board, President Tenny will become the second woman in the organization’s 30-year history to serve as chair.

“We are thrilled to have Elissa elected as the chair of the AICAD Board of Trustees,” said Deborah Obalil, president and executive director of AICAD. “Elissa has been a leader within AICAD since beginning as provost of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and it is not surprising that a board of her peers would elect her as their chair.”

President Tenny was appointed head of SAIC in 2016, making her the 15th executive and the first woman to lead the School in its history. During her tenure, the School completed its first-ever major fundraising campaign at 110 percent of goal. SAIC has also taken meaningful steps toward becoming a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive college under President Tenny’s leadership by increasing access and affordability for all learners through scholarship opportunities and a multi-year bridge program for area students, and expanded disability programming and prioritized DEI expertise through forming the Anti-Racism Committee, increasing diversity in full-time faculty searches and hires, expanding existing staff dedicated to DEI. President Tenny was also instrumental in the development of the First-Generation Fellows pilot program, which aims to create a stronger peer network for first-generation students—who make up nearly 20 percent of SAIC’s undergraduate and graduate community—through support for initiatives such as student employment, mentorship, workshops, and scholarship opportunities.

“Since its founding more than 30 years ago, the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design has become an invaluable resource for North America’s best private art colleges,” said Elissa Tenny, “Through AICAD, these colleges collaborate on curriculum, research, and arts advocacy, allowing us to better serve our collective student body of over 50,000 students from more than 60 countries.

About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons, and LeRoy Neiman.

About AICAD

AICAD—the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design—is a non-profit consortium of the leading specialized arts and design schools in the US and Canada. Founded in 1991, the mission is to help strengthen the member colleges individually and collectively, and to inform the public about these colleges and universities and the value of studying the arts and design. Key programs of the association include the AICAD Post Graduate Teaching Fellowship, the AICAD BIPOC Academic Leadership Institute, the AICAD Slideroom Portal providing portfolio review to 9-12th graders anywhere in the world, the annual AICAD Symposium and AICAD Exchange. The association operates aicad.org to provide useful information about studying arts and design for potential students, their parents, arts teachers and guidance counselors.

Press Contacts
Bree Witt
bwitt@saic.edu