After receiving a congressional waiver, Bernardi joined the United States Navy Reserve as an intelligence specialist while engaged in his post-doctoral studies (1997).
During his service, Bernardi participated in a tour of duty in Iraq (which precluded his ability to accept a Fulbright fellowship in 2009), where he trained Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) and Emergency Response Brigade (ERB) Soldiers on combat camera and media operations, managed US media embeds, including CNN, NBC, AP, US Army and US Navy journalists and photographers.
Bernardi managed a team of military (U.S., Australian and New Zealand) and NGO (Project HOPE) photographers, videographers and writers assigned to document and report on the mission.
Bernardi began his collegiate career studying acting at the University of Arizona and entered a feminist film theory course during his junior year.
Bernardi has taught film, television and new media at UC Riverside (1997–1998), UCLA (1999-2000), Arizona State University (1999-2011), and SFSU (2011–Present).
Similarly, El Dorado Films is a specialized filmmaking collective that works across the U.S. and around the world to craft compelling documentaries, shorts, and commercials, which offers also an online streaming platform.
Bernardi's interest in the representation of race is still present and he actively writes for American newspapers on contemporary films, such as the upcoming biopic on Leonard Bernstein 'Maestro'.