Biographie
Steve was born and raised in a French-speaking family in Manchester, the son of immigrants from Quebec. His father, Normand, left school in St. Isidore, PQ after 8th grade, eventually moving to Manchester to become a carpenter and home builder. His mother, Suzanne (Montminy) Marchand, worked at the old Pandora Mills on the banks of the Merrimack River until Steve was born in 1974. She later earned her GED and started her own electrology business in Goffstown, where they still live.
Steve's family worked very hard to get into the middle class, moving frequently in and around the West Side of Manchester. During the recession of the late '80s and early '90s, the homebuilding industry collapsed, and without predictable income, Steve's family was unable to afford health insurance. Soon after, Suzanne suffered a heart attack, and the resulting medical bills forced Steve's family into bankruptcy. Through hard work, Steve's family has recovered, but Steve's passion on everything from the positive power of immigration, to the need for universal health care access for every New Hampshirite, to the real and growing challenges facing the middle class, to the importance of quality public education, to the importance of entrepreneurism, come from his upbringing.
Steve received a B.S in International Relations and a B.A. in Public Affairs from Syracuse University in 1996. He went on to receive a Masters in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 1998.
As a small businessman, Steve helped perform audits of local, county and state government departments across America. From police and fire departments to statewide juvenile justice systems, making government work well for residents by focusing on defining and measuring results - and increasing accountability for making those results happen - connected the experiences of Steve's youth with ways to make life better for people like his parents, Normand and Suzanne.
He has worked with organizations as diverse as the National Football League, AARP, SEIU, the Concord Coalition, and the U.S. Department of State.
