Steven M. Wells has written three books, all self-published. His first book, Ginger’s Story, was written as a short first-person narrative about the challenges of raising a daughter through high school as a single dad. Narrated by Ginger, the daughter’s golden retriever, the short and poignant story tells of a family torn apart by divorce and healed through the love of a dog. As a single father, Steven followed the lives of his young daughter and her friends through college and into young adulthood. Now that they have graduated from college, this cohort has exposed Steven to many of the issues that young women face today. His next two books, Killer Cuvée and Harvest Homicide, are “wine mystery” novels about a fictional winemaker in Walla Walla, Washington, who becomes embroiled in murder mysteries. Both books are written with an abundance of factual winemaking knowledge and educate readers about life in a small winery through the telling of suspenseful stories.

A former executive at Microsoft, Steven also served as the board chair of the Microsoft Alumni Foundation. His efforts have helped steer the foundation’s grants of $750,000 to Microsoft alumni and their numerous philanthropic efforts. His experience with the foundation has involved Steven in some of the world’s greatest challenges, including disaster relief, health-care delivery, illiteracy prevention, juvenile-incarceration advocacy, and climate-change activism. Many of these issues share a common element: they affect women disproportionately.
 
Steven’s educational background includes a BS in engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, which he chose for the location of Yes Means Yes. He received an MBA from Seattle University, a degree in wine production from South Seattle Community College, and a certificate in nonfiction writing from the University of Washington.