Stephen Stapleton is a British-Norwegian artist-social entrepreneur known for leading organisations and developing platforms for cultural production, education and diplomacy across international borders. Following an artist road trip across the Middle East in 2002-2003, Stephen founded Edge of Arabia and the UK charity, the Crossway Foundation, as platforms for creative collaboration between the Middle East and the West. In 2015, Stephen launched Culturunners at MIT to develop artists-led initiatives which utilize culture to transform communities, societies and systems and inspire greater empathy across ideological and geographical borders. In 2019, Culturunners established The Future is Unwritten as part of the United Nations 75th Anniversary program to facilitate cooperation between the international Arts sector and UN Agencies, and to accelerate implementation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. In 2020, Stephen established the Healing Arts initiative, in collaboration with Christopher Bailey at the World Health Organization, as a rapid response to COVID-19 and its impact on mental health. In 2023, Stephen became a Co-Founding Director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab.