Mary-Elizabeth Eberhardt ’76
Medallion of Excellence
Honors alumni who are faculty, staff or regents and have exhibited exceptional service to the university, their profession and the community
Mary-Elizabeth Eberhardt holds many roles in the Stockton community but takes greatest pride in serving Pacific. A College of the Pacific graduate with a credential from Benerd College, she began giving back as a student, teaching physical education classes for the Health and Exercise Science department.
Pacific later hired her as the first marketing and fundraising coordinator for women’s intercollegiate athletics where she pioneered initiatives to garner awareness and financial support for the program while challenging long-held biases against women in sports.
Today, Eberhardt proudly chairs the university’s Board of Regents. She joined the board in 2017 and subsequently participated in a presidential search, guided the university through the COVID-19 pandemic and steered a $300 million comprehensive campaign.
She is the fifth member of her family to serve on the board and only the third woman in Pacific’s 174-year history to chair it. Her example inspires other female leaders to follow suit.
“Mary-Elizabeth’s mentorship has profoundly shaped my own leadership journey,” said Board Vice Chair Leticia Robles ’89. “She gave me the courage to be bold and showed me how to do it with grace, modeling a leadership style that is both visionary and deeply compassionate. Her ability to empower others, especially women, to lead with confidence and purpose continues to inspire my work at Pacific and beyond.”
Eberhardt previously served on advisory boards for the division of student life, Pacific Athletics and the Eberhardt School of Business, named for her family in 1995. The Eberhardts received the alumni association’s Outstanding Family Award in 2016.
She has made significant philanthropic contributions to Pacific, including three endowed scholarships, two endowed chairs and the Dean’s Innovation Fund, which fuels program growth and faculty development in the business school.
She also gives to the Community Involvement Program and Pacific Athletics, where she has driven support for the Douglass M. Eberhardt Aquatics Center, the Pacific Football Legacy Project and the planned student-athlete and sports medicine center.
Her impact beyond Pacific’s gates is equally powerful. As vice president and director of community banking for Bank of Stockton, she takes bold action to make banking accessible to low-income and underrepresented communities, to help small businesses thrive and to equip other bankers for impactful careers.
“Mary-Elizabeth forges the way not only for herself, but for others. She is true to her beliefs, can be bull-headed in pursuit of them, and few have been successful in telling her no,” said Angela Brusa ’84, the bank’s vice president and director of marketing. “She has the heart of a tiger and the roar of one too, if you stand in the way of what she believes in.”
Eberhardt also is vice chair of the San Joaquin Partnership, a founding board member of the Children’s Museum of Stockton, and a trustee of the San Joaquin Historical Society. Her many contributions were recently recognized with a key to the city of Stockton.