Catherine M. Bernas (ab9599)

Advisor Training Academy

ATA Outstanding Academic Advising Team (2022)

 University Advising Center

Kate Bernas has served as an academic advisor and advising administrator since she began at Wayne State in 1992. She has advised at the undergraduate and graduate level within Wayne's School of Business Administration, now the Mike Ilitch School of Business (MISB), and as a generalist advisor within the University Advising Center (UAC). She also served as a health professions advisor within the UAC’s Pre-med and Health Science Center, which she worked to launch in 2008.

In 2014, Kate was given the privilege to design and launch Wayne State’s Advisor Training Academy (ATA) to serve the training, professional development, communication, and recognition needs of its 90+ primary-role academic advisors and success coaches. In addition, Kate also provides campus-wide training and user-support for the University’s Stars 2.0 platform.

Kate earned her BA in Anthropology (1990) from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, and an MA in Counseling from Wayne State University (1997). She considers herself both a proud legacy employee and legacy alum of Wayne State, with both her parents having retired from careers at the University, her son on staff at MISB, and with multiple siblings and her spouse having earned degrees at Wayne.

Kate hopes to continue to elevate the role and voice of academic advisors through her leadership in the Office of Student Success. More importantly, she hopes to continue her work serving the ongoing needs of advisors whose exceptional skills, knowledge, and competence are credited, in part, with Wayne State’s impressive improvement in graduation rates over the last ten years.

Kate's personal philosophy of advising