Michael S. Bernick joined Sedgwick after serving for nearly five years (1999-2004) as director of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), the 10,000-person state department of labor. As EDD director, Mr. Bernick oversaw the administration of the state’s employer tax collection system, unemployment insurance system, and disability insurance system.
Michael S. Bernick joined Sedgwick after serving for nearly five years (1999-2004) as director of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), the 10,000-person state department of labor. As EDD director, Mr. Bernick oversaw the administration of the state’s employer tax collection system, unemployment insurance system, and disability insurance system.
Prior to being appointed EDD director by the governor in 1999, Mr. Bernick was active for more than 13 years in the law and planning of new communities linked to rail transit stations. Mr. Bernick served for 8 years as a member of the Board of Directors and as president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, the regional rail system, where he took the lead in new communities at BART stations. He also served as co-director of the National Transit Access Center at U.C. Berkeley, specializing in public-private partnerships for land development. He was retained by municipalities, transit agencies and developers on rail station developments throughout the United States, including transit-based development in Southern New Jersey, St. Louis, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Presentations & Publications
- Mr. Bernick is the co-author with Robert Cervero of Transit Villages in the 21st Century (McGraw Hill 1996), which continues to be widely used in university level classes.
- He is the author of three books on employment, The Dreams of Jobs (Olympus 1984), Urban Illusions (Praeger, 1987) and Job Training That Gets Results: 10 Principles of Effective Employment Programs (Upjohn, 2006).
- He also is the author of more than 30 major articles and monographs on land use and transportation, and on workforce development.
Memberships & Honors
Mr. Bernick has held several academic and research appointments, and during the 1980s and 1990s was on the adjunct faculty at U.C. Berkeley. Among his current appointments, he is a research fellow with the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, a fellow and with the International Institute of Surface Transportation Policy at San Jose State University, a governor’s appointee on the California Apprenticeship Council, and an appointee of San Francisco Mayor Newsom on the Mayor’s Civil Service Reform Advisory Panel.
While attending law school, Mr. Bernick was a member of the Law Review.