About Us
Sarah M. Dunifon
Founder + Principal Evaluator
Dr. Sarah M. Dunifon (she/her) provides culturally responsive, participatory, and utilization-focused evaluation services for informal STEM learning organizations as the Founder and Principal Evaluator of Improved Insights, LLC. In this role, she has worked with nonprofits, museums, government agencies, universities, and other learning organizations.
Previously, she served as Associate Director for Women in Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and the Senior Research and Evaluation Associate at Wildlife Conservation Society. She has served as a moderator for data literacy in the North American Association for Environmental Education’s eePRO program and as an Evaluation Officer with STEM Advocacy Institute.
Sarah frequently writes for academic and professional journals and currently serves as a columnist and article reviewer for NSTA’s Connected Science Learning. She has served as a grant reviewer for organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Her research interests include STEM equity, participatory science, conservation biology, informal STEM education (ISE), the learning sciences, and ISE evaluation.
She earned a Doctor of Education in Learning Sciences and Policy from the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in out-of-school learning. Her doctoral research and dissertation focused on the evaluation policies of informal STEM learning funding organizations. She obtained a Master of Arts in Biology from Miami University’s Global Field Program, including field studies in Costa Rica, Guyana, and Belize, focusing on conservation biology, community-based conservation, participatory science, inquiry-based education, and project-based learning. Her undergraduate degree from the honor’s program at Ohio State University included a double major in anthropology and international relations & diplomacy, with a minor in Middle East studies.
Sarah is a member of the American Evaluation Association, Association for Women in Science, Citizen Science Association, North American Association for Environmental Education, Visitor Studies Association, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Learn more about Sarah below and connect with her on LinkedIn.
11 Things To Know About Me
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1. I’m interested in how culture and identity affect STEM experiences.
In graduate school, I spent field studies learning about community-based conservation in Central and South America. As a STEM equity professional in higher education, I worked against the barriers certain groups (women and women of color primarily, but also underrepresented groups in STEM broadly) face in gaining access to positive STEM experiences. As a consultant, I center equity and culturally responsive methods in my work with clients.
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2. I enjoy working with youth.
As a young professional, I ran field trip programs for one of the most established zoos in the country. Working with thousands of students each year fed my soul and confirmed for me the desire to work with young people. When I’m not working with youth directly in my consulting, I serve as a mentor to youth and young professionals I’ve had the privilege of working with over my career.
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3. I’ve been an educator, program manager, evaluator, and advocate in my career.
I understand how each unique role contributes to supporting STEM outreach, education, and equity. We all have a part to play in making STEM for everyone.
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4. I find it super rewarding to see youth become “STEM people” through the impact of informal STEM education.
Making STEM accessible and relevant to all learners drives me. Research shows that students opt-out of STEM by middle school and we need programs which show students that STEM is relevant, accessible, and somewhere that they belong.
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5. I love working with people.
As an evaluator, I'm a facilitator, a question-asker, and a meaning-maker. I love working with people and bridging diverse perspectives to help organizations make meaning. I work with you throughout the process and build capacity along the way.
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6. Helping organizations to assess and communicate the impacts of their work drives me.
I know the power of informal STEM education and how it can open doors to new futures for students. I care about the work that the field is doing as a whole and see my role as helping to understand and amplify our impacts.
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7. I’ve been interested in STEM all my life.
I’ve been a STEM nerd all my life. I spent my childhood exploring Oregon tidepools and tinkering with my engineer dad. I volunteered in a paleobotany lab in my undergrad days as an excuse to keep playing with STEM. Now, I study how other kids explore tidepools (and eagles and stars and ...) and how those explorations impact them as people and scientists.
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8. I love learning and reading.
Remember those Pizza Hut coupons you earned for reading books in elementary school? Oh yeah, I was the pizza queen in my grade. Now, I consume dozens of books and hundreds of podcast episodes each year. I love making connections between fields and ideas.
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9. I’m a futurist.
I see how important STEM skills are now and how much more important they will be in the future. I think a lot (maybe too much) about education systems and how we can make them more inclusive and equitable for everyone. Museums, zoos, and even tide pools are a big part of that. I chase answers to questions of who has access to this learning? and how can it fill gaps of inequity?
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10. I enjoy analyzing and communicating data.
In the early days, this meant lining up multicolored plastic bears into pseudo bar charts. Now, I experiment with the most effective ways to communicate information with my clients (like visual data briefs, slide decks, and interactive meaning-making sessions).
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11. I’m a STEM hobbyist in my free time.
I bought a motion-detecting trail camera to track the wildlife in my own backyard, routinely plan vacations around STEM-related resources (like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute or the national parks), and love recognizing everyday applications for STEM skills (as I am currently calculating the amount of landscaping material we’ll need for a backyard overhaul).
