Stephen Chicoine is the author of eight 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 currently serves as volunteer Director of Transitional Housing for Source Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit serving marginalized youth on the streets of Minneapolis. Source empowers at-risk and alienated youth to build foundations for healthy futures. and is a member of a pro-forma Board forming a new international nonprofit to facilitate cross-cultural transformation.

He is volunteer 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 a member of his church's Mission & Compassion team and serves as liaison with the nonprofit Feed My Starving Children. He is a member of the executive committee of a pro-forma board forming a new international nonprofit focused on serving the poor of the Third World and facilitating the cross-cultural transformation of volunteers.

Mr. Chicoine has adventure-traveled extensively throughout the world, including such remote regions as Tibet, Xinjiang in far western China, Siberia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.

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.