Her research as a graduate student was based on a new class of polymers called Dendrimers, which she synthesized and then studied their physical properties in solution. She moved to the Lehigh Valley after graduate school and worked as an adjunct instructor at local colleges and universities until finally settling into a position at Lehigh University. There, Berk acted as their first undergraduate laboratory manager, teaching and helping them redevelop their general chemistry laboratories into an inquiry based format. She left Lehigh and joined the Cedar Crest community in order to get back to teaching organic chemistry.