Matt Bernius is a principal design researcher working to make food benefits in California more accessible as part of Code for America’s “GetCalFresh” project. He previously worked on CfA’s automated criminal record clearing project “Clear My Record.” Before joining CfA, Matt worked at Measures for Justice, a non-profit working to bring data transparency to the US Criminal Justice System at the county level.

Matt began his career at Kodak.com, spent time as a visiting professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and worked at experience design agency Effective Inc. Across his career, He has helped a wide range of clients, including Autodesk, Boeing, Google, Honeywell, Mozilla, and PricewaterhouseCoopers better understand their customers and employees through a wide range of research projects. Matt holds a Master’s degree in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, a Bachelor’s degree in New Media Publishing from RIT, and was a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology at Cornell University. He also helps organize the networking component of EPIC’s annual conference, sits on the board of Open@RIT, and helps facilitate the Trauma-Informed Design Group.