Jan first began working with museums to facilitate repatriation in 1986 when she joined a small team contracted to inventory, database, reconcile, rehouse, and report on the State of California Parks Department Native American holdings. Upon completion of that project she moved to New York City where she was hired by the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the oldest collecting Children’s Museum in the World, as a curator.  In 1990, she moved west again, this time to Denver Colorado where she continues to reside. As a principal of Museum Consultants, she helped area museums in their efforts to prepare for compliance with NAGPRA. From 1995 to 2003 Jan served as NAGPRA coordinator and collections manager for the University of Denver Museum of Anthropology. As adjunct faculty, she taught graduate courses at the University of Denver and University of Colorado in their museum studies graduate programs. 

In 2003, she founded Bernstein and Associates, LLC – Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Consultants.  In addition to helping clients further their NAGPRA compliance efforts, she helps build capacity to comply with NAGPRA.  Most recently she has been co-teaching  two-day seminar sponsored by the National Preservation Institute in Writing and Managing a Successful NAGPRA Grant.  She has also co-taught the webinar NAGPRA for Museums for the National NAGPRA Program. 

She holds a B.A. in Art and Art History from California State University Sacramento and a M.S. in Museum and Field Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder.