Jen Stein

Dr. Jen Stein is a senior project engineer within the Strategic Foresight Team at the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation. In this role, Stein imagines and develops possible and preferable futures using foresight methodologies and speculative design. 

Prior to joining Aerospace, Stein was a lead designer at Experimental Design, a world building design studio in Los Angeles. Stein has held academic positions as Watershed Professor of Design Futures at UWE Bristol (UK); as Research Faculty in Media Arts + Practice at University of Southern California; and as co-director of the Mobile and Environmental Media Lab at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. 

Stein's design work and research range in complexity from speculative design and future-facing world building to designing practical applications for new kinds of user experiences within increasingly complex systems. She has extensive experience leading design projects related to the Future of Mobility, the Future of Sustainable Cities, the Future of Work, and Augmented/Virtual/Extended Realities.

Stein earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Rutgers University, a master’s degree in media and communications from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a doctorate in media arts and practice at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, where she focused her design research and practice on designing speculative user experiences for near-future interactive architecture and responsive environments.