Joey Colby Bernert
PhD Student, Graduate Research Assistant
Contact
jcb00101@mix.wvu.eduCategorized As
Social Justice Equity and Policy
Joey Colby Bernert began the PhD program in Social Work at West Virginia University in Fall 2026. He comes from an interdisciplinary background in statistics, manufacturing engineering technology, public health, and social work. Joey earned a Master of Public Health from Michigan State University and a Master of Social Work and bachelor’s degree in Women and Gender Studies from Oakland University. His professional experience spans clinical social work, community health, research, and quantitative analysis.
As a clinical social worker, Joey works with children and adults, with particular experience in adolescent mental health and high-conflict family systems. His clinical practice draws primarily on Beckian cognitive models and metacognitive approaches. His scholarship integrates social work with advanced quantitative and mathematical methods, including multivariate statistics, stochastic modeling, and applied mathematical modeling.
His research interests center on social welfare policy, rural health disparities, and technological infrastructure. In particular, he examines how legacy technology within state welfare systems shapes administrative burden, access to benefits, and equitable service delivery. Through his doctoral research, Joey aims to develop rigorous, data-driven approaches to identifying and reducing structural barriers within public systems.
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