Unplugging Our Kids
Executive Director, Camp Champions
Steve and his wife Susie are the Executive Directors of Camp Champions in Marble Falls, TX. He is also partner and co-founder of Everwood Day Camp in Sharon, MA and a partner in Camp Pinnacle in Flat Rock, NC. He has been a camp professional since 1993.
Raised in Midland, TX, Steve attended Davidson College (Summa Cum Laude), London School of Economics and Harvard Business School. At Harvard, he was a Baker Scholar (top 4%) and a Loeb Fellow (top 4 finance students).
He spent 4 years as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Simmons & Company. While finance was intellectually challenging, he wanted a career that impacted children. As a result, he committed himself to summer camps and outdoor education. In 1993, he and his brother founded Camp Balcones Springs. In 1995, they and Susie bought Camp Champions. In 1996, they founded the Outdoor School to provide experiential learning and outdoor education to children ages 12-15. He co-founded Everwood Day Camp in 2010 and became a partner in Camp Pinnacle in 2011.
In 1999, he co-founded iluvcamp, a company providing internet-based services to summer camps. Iluvcamp lasted only two years, but it provided important insight into the intersection between technology and summer camps.
Steve is deeply involved with the American Camp Association (ACA), the accrediting body of summer camps. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the National Board and is the ACA Treasurer. From 2008-2010 he chaired the Tri-State Camp Conference, the largest gathering of camp professionals in the world. The ACA awarded him the National Service Award (2009) and the National Honor Award (2012).
Steve writes for Psychology Today on youth development, education and parenting.
Most importantly, he is a husband and father of 4 children: twin boys (15) and two daughters (14 & 11). Since he and Susie cannot spend summers with their children, they took them out of school last year and traveled for 22 weeks to Europe, Asia and New Zealand. They remain surprisingly sane.
