Click here to see a portrait of me drawn by my youngest daughter

Stephen Chicoine is the author of nine books and is a member of the Authors Guild. Mr. Chicoine was born and raised in Decatur, Illinois. He holds an undergraduate degree from University of Illinois and a graduate degree from Stanford University. He lived and worked for twenty-five years in Texas as an energy executive.

Mr. Chicoine has been involved mentoring and tutoring youth and serving on nonprofit Boards for thirty years. He was the Executive Director for 2 ½ years of TURN, Twin Cities Reconciliation Network, a faith-based nonprofit in north Minneapolis which served the unemployed and underemployed by addressing root causes of poverty. He was National Director of Community Programs for a national nonprofit organization for a year.

He also was Director of Transitional Housing for Source Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit serving marginalized and alienated youth on the streets of Minneapolis and empowering them for healthy futures.

For more than five years, he was tutor and Head Tutor for A Better Chance (ABC), a nonprofit organization, which provides a safe and nurturing home for academically high-achieving high school students of color, who come from economically and emotionally-distressed situations.

He is an active member of his church's Mission & Compassion team, served for some time as liaison with the nonprofit Feed My Starving Children and currently is liaison for a church-sponsored mission team in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia.

He is currently engaged in organizing a new initiative in north Minneapolis which would partner a church, a nonprofit, a local university and a Fortune 500 company and teach technical skills to prepare disadvantaged youth and young adults for meaningful employment in the marketplace.

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.