Jill Stein is Principal Researcher of JKS Consulting, based in Corvallis, OR, and brings more than 15 years of experience in audience research and evaluation in informal learning contexts. She has worked with a broad range of institutions, including science museums and centers, cultural heritage and history museums, tribal museums, historic sites, art museums, and children’s museums. Her focus areas include the role that culture plays in learning, evaluation practices that attend to diversity and equity, and cross-cultural partnerships.

Jill has been the lead evaluator on numerous projects funded by NSF, NASA and IMLS around bringing together Indigenous knowledge and western science in informal learning settings and engaging Native youth in STEM through their cultural knowledge systems. A key example is Native Universe: Indigenous Voice in Science Museums, in which she served as one of the lead evaluators for formative and summative evaluation focused on understanding how institutional change can be supported around the inclusion of Indigenous voices and perspectives in science museums. She is currently partnering with Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center on a comprehensive evaluation of “Transforming American Indian and Alaska Native STEM Learning via Indigenous Knowledge Translation, Education, and the Environment” (NSF-DRL # NSF DRL #1812543), which seeks to build a Community of Practice around environmental education grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing among Coastal Salish tribes.

Jill has a Master’s degree in Folklore and Anthropology with an emphasis on Museum Studies from Indiana University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Anthropology at Oregon State University.