Steve is principal of the Center for Receptive Communication. In this role he provides trainings and consultations with leaders and team members of businesses, nonprofits, faith communities, and educational institutions. He leads retreats, workshops and course on Receptive Communication, Leadership, and Ethics. Stephen Michael is adjunct faculty at Eastern Nazarene where he teaches Ethical Leadership.

Steve is co-founder of the nonprofit corporation, Heart-to-Heart: Comienzos East, which brings life-changing education into jails and prisons.  Steve is working toward his Ph.D. in Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University. Areas of interest include servant-leadership, as developed by Robert Greenleaf, Nonviolent Communication, as developed by Marshall Rosenberg, sustainability, dialogue, and the spirituality of work.

His work has been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Group Therapy at the Camden County Jail.” (2016) and NBC News, “Prison Meditation Program Helps Inmates Rebuild Minds, Restart Lives.” (2015).

He is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, T’ai Chi Chih instructor and the recipient of an OPUS Vision Scholarship from Pacifica Graduate Institute and an Environmental Achievement Awardfrom the Environmental Protection Agency. He has served on the Board of Directors of three nonprofit corporations. He is married to Julene Tegerstrand, a faculty member at Eastern Nazarene College. They live together in Quincy, Massachusetts.