Steve’s unusual journey began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a bachelor's and master's in Aerospace Engineering as well as a master's in Public Policy. At MIT, he conducted research on space station construction techniques using SCUBA gear and a full-size underwater Space Shuttle mock-up at the NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center.

He also led a team of MIT students in designing and building a five-person, forty-foot long, high technology "bicycle," to break the world land speed record of 63 mph for a human powered vehicle. This invention is on display at the Boston Museum of Science.

Steve's master’s thesis on the future of the U.S. space program was excerpted in numerous magazines and newspapers and cited in congressional testimony. It became the only college thesis in history ever reviewed by The New York Review of Books.

After the Challenger explosion, the Office of Technology Assessment (Congress’s think tank) asked Steve to participate in an extensive review of the nation's space transportation systems. After two years on Capitol Hill, he left government to follow his entrepreneurial urges.

At Orbital Sciences Corporation Steve became Program Control Manager for Pegasus, the world's first privately-developed space launch vehicle. This rocket was so revolutionary that in 1991 Steve and the other Pegasus team members were presented with the National Medal of Technology by President Bush in a White House ceremony. The National Medal of Technology is the nation's highest award for technological innovation. At age 28, Steve was the youngest person ever awarded this Medal. Steve and the Pegasus team also received the 1990 National Air and Space Museum's Trophy for Current Achievement in Aerospace.

In 1992 he worked with astronaut Sally Ride on the Presidential Transition Team generating options for reorganizing NASA. The next few years he worked as a consultant for several Washington, DC high-tech firms in capacities as varied as finance, marketing, business development, and government relations.

In 1995, Steve did a 180° career turn and began work as an actor, model, and writer. Since then he has appeared in over 300 print ads and television commercials, and had speaking parts in the films Shadow Conspiracy, Random Hearts, Girl Interrupted, and Hollow Man. Steve’s television work garnered a regional Emmy Award this year.

In 1997, St. Martin's Press published his Little Book of Bad Business Advice, a collection of humorous quips and maxims about business life. In 2001, Andrews McMeel published his sequel, If You Jam the Copier, Bolt.

Steve has also developed a national reputation as a humorous essayist. Typically, he gets hired into unusual occupations and writes hilarious accounts of his misadventures. These undercover exploits have earned him the title "George Plimpton of his generation". A few of the escapades he has written about are: aide to President Clinton, FBI trainee, CIA applicant, stand-in for Brad Pitt, and hand model.

His "first-person participatory adventure essays" have appeared in: Salon, P.O.V., Capital Style, The Washington Post, TearSheet, Redbook, The Boston Phoenix, The Writer and many other publications.

Steve's wry wit makes him a sought-after speaker.