Sheri J. Levinsky-Raskin, Founder and President of SJLR Solutions LLC: Museum Consultant, Evaluator, Educator, Visitor Advocate
I founded SJLR Solutions to empower teams and demystify evaluation practices for cultural organizations and museum professionals across the United States. Committed to supporting teams of all sizes and professionals at every experience level, I share my expertise, strategies, and resources to help organizations thrive.
A lifelong advocate for culture, visitor engagement, and accessibility, my journey began while growing up in New York City, inspired by its vibrant museum community. I discovered museum education in 1995, recognizing it as the perfect intersection of my academic background in cultural anthropology, elementary education, and art history. Early roles included an education internship and part-time gallery teaching at the Saint Louis Art Museum during my undergraduate studies, followed by a summer internship at the Art Institute of Chicago. I hold a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and earned my master’s degree in museum education from George Washington University in 1999.
My professional career began at the Decatur House Museum (National Trust for Historic Preservation) in Washington, D.C., where I served as Director of Education and Programs for over six years. There, I developed skills in team leadership, grant writing, interpretive planning, exhibition development, and board engagement. In 2005, I returned to New York City to join the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Over 15 years, I advanced to Assistant Vice President for Research and Evaluation, where I established the museum’s first internal evaluation team and led visitor experience studies, exhibition prototyping, program assessments, and data-driven reporting.
I have secured and managed projects funded by prominent national agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). I am dedicated to fostering accessible, high-quality museum experiences and have served on local and national committees with organizations such as the AAM Education Committee (EdCom), Museum, Arts, and Culture Access Consortium (MAC), American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and New York City Museum Educators Roundtable (NYCMER). Additionally, I am a seasoned grant reviewer for IMLS and NEH, and a frequent article reviewer for the Journal of Museum Education.
As an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University’s Museum Studies MA program—and previously teaching with museum studies programs at CUNY School of Professional Studies, New York University, and Seton Hall University—I have instructed courses on museum evaluation, audience research, museum history and theory, and community engagement. My expertise is reflected in published works on accessibility, inclusion, out-of-school time programs, and evaluation practices, and I have shared insights at over 25 national conferences and webinars, contributing widely to museum education, research, and collaboration.