Biography

Jodie Z. Bernstein was born Joan Zeldes in Galesburg, IL, where her father owned Louie's Liquor store and her mother was a buyer at a department store. After developing an interest in politics in high school, Jodie attended college at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and graduated in the top of her class. She earned her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1951— at a time when hardly any women did so — again at the top of her class and as a member of the Board of Editors of the Yale Law Journal.

Ms. Bernstein's public service includes appointments as director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), general counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency, and general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In her role at HHS, she supervised the legal divisions of the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Health Care Finance Administration. She also chaired the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, whose work resulted in reparations to Japanese Americans subject to internment during World War II. During her tenure at the FTC, Ms. Bernstein expanded the Bureau's prosecution of unfair and deceptive marketing practices, and the FTC became the leading enforcer of federal privacy laws. She targeted issues including Internet privacy and identity theft; she developed the Commission's privacy enforcement policies; and she directed the FTC's implementation and enforcement of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

In private practice Ms. Bernstein has handled a wide variety of cases and projects, including such unique challenges as helping the food industry develop the Children's Food and Beverage Initiative, a program of self-regulation designed to shift the mix of advertising messaging to children to encourage healthier dietary choices and healthy lifestyles. In October 2009, Ms. Bernstein received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Lawyer. She is also a recipient of the Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award for Lifetime Federal Trade Commission Achievement, which is presented to an individual whose contributions to the agency are reflected in all facets of the honoree's work, inside and outside the agency.