Bronwyn Bevan

Bronwyn Bevan, PhD, is an expert in youth development, with a focus on informal learning contexts and STEM/STEAM. Working across program, research, and policy, her work emphasizes evidence-based approaches to expanding young people’s opportunities to develop purpose, supportive relationships, and direction.

Bevan most recently served as the Vice President of Research at The Wallace Foundation, where she commissioned studies in the arts, education leadership, and youth development. Prior to that she served as a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Washington and as a museum executive and center director at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

In these roles she led numerous federally-funded informal educator professional development programs as well as research studies. She has published some 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, authored over two dozen book chapters and practitioner-facing reports, and produced books on the topics of learning in out of school time settings (2012), research-practice partnerships (2018), and equity in museums (2021). She served on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Out-of-School Time STEM Learning and its Committee to Assess NASA SMD’s Science Activation Portfolio, and as the informal learning section editor and editorial board member of Science Education for many years. She currently serves on the boards of the Wellesley Centers for Women, Concord Consortium, and Guerilla Science International, as well as on numerous advisory committees.

Bevan has a PhD in urban education from the CUNY Graduate Center, and a BA from Barnard College Columbia University.