As Education Coordinator at Nova Southeastern University 's Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies, she develops all of the preschool, infant, and toddler programs.

She began NSU's Child Development Associate course in 1989 to become a better preschool teacher's aid and to benefit her own children. Dr. Marilyn Segal, then Dean of the Family Center asked Ms. Bernath to critique her text in the hopes that the Child Development Associate course

would one day be recognized as a college entry-level course for credit. Ms. Bernath's work was used as evidence of the course's academic value. As a result, Ms. Bernath was the first candidate at NSU to receive nine college credits for the three-class course. She then went on to work in every single one of NSU's early childhood departments.

She is the recipient of the 2002 “Project for Instructional Excellence” from NSU's Lower School.

Ms. Bernath is a fifth degree black belt in Aikido and is recognized as one of the top ten women in Aikido in the United States. She is co-owner and chief instructor of Florida School of Aikido in Fort Lauderdale.