In 1976, after working as a designer at a friends stained glass studio, Stern opened his first studio in Oakland. Over the years the artist has produced glasswork for churches and other sacred buildings, created custom residential glasswork, restored or replicated windows by Frank Lloyd Wright and other Prairie architects, and been awarded several prestigious public projects like The City Center Dome in Oakland, California, and more recently the R.B. Long Federal Courthouse in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has received numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects as well as the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture.