About the Founder
Founder & Principal Advisor
"I have been on both sides of the desk — as a dean, an advisor, a faculty member, and as a parent. That full view is what I bring to every family I serve."
As a Dean of Students at a major research university, Dr. Bernstine led efforts to manage complex student concerns, promote mental health and campus safety, and oversee a university-wide Care Network that annually resolved thousands of cases involving students with significant medical, mental health, social, family, academic, and behavioral needs.
Dr. Bernstine has administered disciplinary proceedings including delivering probation, suspension, and dismissal outcomes. He has worked alongside countless parents and families navigating the challenge of sending a child to college, and understands firsthand the anxiety, confusion, and urgency that families experience when things go wrong.
As an academic dean, Dr. Bernstine oversaw academic advising, recruitment, retention, curriculum, and course scheduling, registration, and petitions. He developed a syllabus for parents and families to guide them through the milestones of their student's academic career — work that became the foundation for a university's first parent and family office.
He has reviewed undergraduate applications, assessed honors program candidates, and evaluated students for living-learning communities. His deep familiarity with how academic institutions make decisions — and where families can constructively intervene — is at the core of The Dean On Demand's advisory approach.
Dr. Bernstine holds faculty appointments at two major universities, teaching college transition programs at the undergraduate level and graduate courses in higher education case study analysis and qualitative research methods. His research centers on the academic and social adjustment of transfer students entering four-year institutions.
He previously held positions in residence life, student activities and leadership programs, and new student orientation at institutions in Oregon and Maryland, giving him a panoramic view of the full arc of a student's college experience from arrival to graduation.
Dr. Bernstine has extensive experience in international education, with partner institutions throughout Australia, Canada, East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and South America. As Director of International and Academic Initiatives at a prominent school of international affairs, he managed advising for exchange students on programs across 14 countries and developed higher education partnerships worldwide.
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