Stephen Jenkinson is a culture activist, worker, and author. He has taught internationally and is the creator of the Orphan Wisdom Schook, cofounded with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010. He apprenticed with a master storyteller as a young man and received a master's degree in theology at Harvard University and a master's of social work from the University of Toronto. Stephen has worked extensively with dying people and their families, formerly serving as the director of palliative care at Mount Sinai Hospital of Toronto. In 2023, Stephen received a Distinguished Alumni Honours Award from Harvard University for "helping people navigate grief, exploring the liminal space between life and death, and connecting humanity through ceremony and storytelling."

Stephen is the author of Reckoning (co-written with Kimberly Ann Johnson in 2022), A Generation's Worth: Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns (2021), Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How It All Could Be: A Workbook for Dying People and Those Who Love Them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation (2002). He was a contributing author to Palliative Care - Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007). Stephen's newest book is Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart's Work (published by Sounds True).