Stephen is a non-profit co-founder, behavioral researcher and counselor educator with 12 years of experience across clinical, education and professional R&D settings. After training and supervising mental health counselors at The University of Alabama Birmingham, he provided research, development, and evaluation leadership as the Chief Innovation Officer at Prevention Strategies in Greensboro, NC. His work in this capacity includes securing >$5M in federal funding for R&D & traditional research; designing behavioral programs for impact and scale; and leading evaluation of national youth mental health initiatives. His work with the Hilinski's Hope Foundation was critical to helping him develop the vision for The Hebs Group. Stephen led the design of their evidence-informed curriculum and provided data-driven advocacy that helped convince state policymakers to commit to a multi-year state appropriation to fund mental health help-seeking programming for Alabama high schools.
 
At THG, Stephen partners with K–12, nonprofits, and socially-responsible corporations to design logic models, build evidence-informed curricula and digital tools, and install right-sized data that wins ongoing support. He guides Build → Validate → Win engagements across grant strategy, product design, and impact storytelling.