Leslie Berns creates research-informed bodies of work that spring from everyday materials. She works with wood leveling sticks coated in oil and chalk pastel in Bookmarks for a Mixed Race Narrative: Who Could and Couldn’t Marry Whom and Shimworks to graphically interpret and critique "Anti-Miscegenation Laws of the Several States: 1932", a historic document she encountered on the internet. Her interdisciplinary, process-oriented projects develop from works on/of paper, to mixed-media objects, to 'performances' in space and time, documented as moving images and digital prints.

Born in Buffalo, NY, raised there and in California, she earned an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from Pratt Institute. She has exhibited her work in the United States and in Europe.

Formerly a Senior Lecturer of Fine Art at the University of Maryland, Leslie is currently based in Hudson, New York and College Park, Maryland.