Kirsten Ellenbogen is the Director of Evaluation and Research in Learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota. She focuses her research on fostering science discourse in out-of-school learning environments and positioning museums in systemic education reform. Previously, as Project Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-CLT Center for Informal Learning and Schools at King's College London, she collaborated on the development and management of a training and research program designed to address the need for research degrees in informal science education. Most recently, she was a Senior Associate at the Institute for Learning Innovation where she was the Principal Investigator of an NSF-funded initiative developed to coalesce the last decade of research on learning in museums into frameworks for practitioners. She began her work in museums as a demonstrator eighteen years ago, and her award-winning exhibition development work has focused on inquiry experiences, multimedia interactives, and dual-purpose spaces appropriate for both school and family groups. She earned a Ph.D. in Science Education from Vanderbilt University.