Stevens received the MacArthur Foundation's award of $625,000 in order to continue her studies on brain cells. Out of the 24 recipients of the award only 9, including Stevens, were women.[22] Stevens received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2012, which is awarded to young scientists by the US government. In October 2015, she gave one of 4 Presidential lectures at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, the world's largest gathering of neuroscientists.