[15][16] He has served as a geographer in 4 major sectors of society, including government (with NOAA, the US Census Bureau, and the US Geological Survey), academia (with Sinte Gleska University, the University of Denver, and as MOOC instructor for Penn State University, Elmhurst College, and eNet Learning), private industry (as Education Manager for Esri), and nonprofit organizations (with roles including the President of the National Council for Geographic Education, the American Association of Geographers and others).

Joseph Kerski has created over 6,200 videos on the Our Earth channel, co-authors a long-running blog about geospatial data called Spatial Reserves, and creates a career podcast for Directions Magazine called GeoInspirations.

He has authored over 100 chapters and articles on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), education, physical and cultural geography, mathematics, fieldwork, teaching and learning, and related topics, and makes frequent presentations at conferences and university campuses.

He has authored or co-authored 12 books, including Teaching Mathematics Using Interactive Mapping, Building a Smarter Campus, Interpreting Our World: 100 Discoveries that Revolutionized Geography, Essentials of the Environment, Spatial Mathematics, Tribal GIS, International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning in Secondary Education and the GIS Guide to Public Domain Data.

In 2018, he gave the first of two presentations on the Whys of Where at TEDx Vail, focusing on the importance of mapping and geotechnologies in education and society.