Stephen Levi Carter, MBA, PMP, is a serial entrepreneur, healthcare executive, author, speaker, and mentor whose career reflects an uncommon combination of business acumen, operational discipline, and mission-driven leadership. With nearly three decades of experience spanning finance, change management, business development, and executive leadership, Carter has built a reputation for turning vision into scalable enterprises. He has held managerial and executive roles across consulting, medical insurance, oil and gas, and technology, while also applying the rigor of Fortune 500 financial management to the challenges of entrepreneurship and growth. A graduate of Langston University with a BBA in Accounting and the University of Houston–Clear Lake with an MBA in Change Management and Finance, he is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), underscoring the strategic and executional depth behind his work.
Carter is best known as the co-founder and CEO of Sterling Staffing Solutions, the Houston-area healthcare staffing company he launched with his twin brother, Dr. Sterling L. Carter. What began in 2011 as a focused healthcare staffing venture grew into a multimillion-dollar enterprise serving home health agencies, hospices, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and other extended-care organizations. Under his leadership, the business has earned repeated recognition for growth, service, and entrepreneurship, including multiple appearances on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, recognition from the American Business Awards/Stevie Awards, honors from the Better Business Bureau, and entrepreneur recognition from TITAN Business Awards. Carter’s broader leadership footprint extends well beyond one company: he has also led or helped build White Orchid Hospice, Carter Brothers Consulting, MyMedCred, HomeHealthPro, and the broader Cartera Health platform, where he has been identified as a co-founder overseeing business strategy, acquisitions, and operational scaling across a portfolio of healthcare ventures.
A decorated U.S. Army veteran, Carter served for eight years as a combat medic and participated in Operation Desert Shield/Storm. His military service earned him the Army Commendation Medal and helped shape the values that continue to define his leadership style: resilience, service, calm under pressure, and a deep respect for people. Those values are especially visible in his work in healthcare and hospice, where his personal experiences with suffering, loss, and caregiving informed his commitment to building organizations that combine operational excellence with compassion. In both business and public life, Carter has consistently positioned success not simply as scale or revenue, but as the ability to improve outcomes, solve meaningful problems, and create systems that serve people well.
Beyond the boardroom, Carter has distinguished himself as a thought leader and advocate for economic empowerment. He is the Amazon bestselling co-author, with his brother, of Double Your Success: Principles to Build a Multimillion-Dollar Business, published by ForbesBooks, and he is also a co-author of The Business of Healing, a book focused on building profitable, mission-driven healthcare businesses. Through speaking engagements, workshops, podcasts, and entrepreneurial education initiatives, he has shared practical insight on scaling companies, increasing workplace productivity, navigating automation, and becoming an authority in one’s field.
Carter’s influence is equally evident in his civic and philanthropic work. He co-founded the Young Millionaires Series, an initiative designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs build businesses capable of generating sustainable wealth and long-term impact, especially in underserved communities. He also helped launch the Fort Bend Entrepreneur Initiative, which assisted more than 1,000 small businesses affected by the COVID-19 era economy, and he has mentored youth through organizations such as 100 Black Men of Metropolitan Houston, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Club, and Kappa Alpha Psi’s Kappa League. Across his work as an entrepreneur, mentor, author, and executive, Stephen Levi Carter has emerged as a builder of businesses, a cultivator of leaders, and a champion of generational impact—someone committed not only to personal success, but to expanding what success makes possible for others.