Jerome "Jerry" Stermer is an American Democratic politician who was appointed Comptroller of Illinois for a short period in late 2014 and early 2015, and was previously in many other Illinois state government positions and private political positions since the 1970s.

Stermer attended Divine Word Missionaries, a Catholic seminary in Epworth, Iowa: According to Voices for Illinois Children, of which he was the first president, he "completed his bachelor's degree in liberal arts"; his 2012 state resume says that he received his bachelor's degree in English in 1966.

He received his master's degree in political science from the University of Illinois^[specify] in 1982.

Stermer was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1968 to 1970.

He was in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services from 1973 to 1979, eventually becoming Assistant to the Director. He was Executive Director of the Legislative Advisory Committee on Public Aid for the Illinois General Assembly from 1979 to 1985. He was Supervisor of Government Affairs for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, the Chicago area's main legal aid in the United States organization.

He became an adjunct professor for the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy in 2002.

In 1987, he became the first president of Voices for Illinois Children, a lobbying organization. His 2012 Illinois state biography says he was president of the organization until 2002; according to the Voices for Illinois Children website he was president until 2009.

Stermer and Pat Quinn have known each other since the Dan Walker administration in the 1970s.