She came to the United States in 1965 to attend the University of California Berkeley, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture.
[1] She went on to earn a Master of Arts in Landscape Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
[3][2] Her design work is focused on ensuring that human-built structures respond to and do not dominate the natural environment.
[5] In 1995, Stein based her design for Uhuru Gardens in East Los Angeles directly on community input, including stated desires for a mini-forest, a freedom tree, outdoor instruction, a community garden, a marketplace where locals could sell produce, and an African forest area with a pond.
[2] Another major part of Stein's academic work is research on Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean landscape design.
[3] Her role was primarily focused on directing construction of a fourteenth-century Moroccan courtyard inside the museum.
[8] Morocco: Courtyards and Gardens (Monacelli Press, 2007) "Windows of opportunity: Reprogramming residual urban space."