Anna Spain Bradley is an author, award-winning legal scholar, higher education leader and globally recognized human rights expert. She has spent two decades studying the role law plays in promoting cooperation, conflict resolution and human rights around the world. Based in Los Angeles, CA, Professor Spain Bradley has lived or worked in every continent except Australia and Antarctica.
A Professor of International Law at the University of California Los Angeles, Spain Bradley is the author of Global Racism (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) naming racism as an undefined violation of international human rights law, Human Choice in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021) investigating the neurobiology of human choice in international legal and political decision making, International Dispute Resolution (Carolina Academic Press 2021, co-editor), and many research publications. Her earlier work focused on decision making at the United Nations and the peaceful resolution of international disputes. She is the recipient of the 2018 Gamm Justice Award and the 2014 American Society of International Law’s Francis Lieber Award for her article The U.N. Security Council’s Duty to Decide (Harvard National Security Journal, 2013).
Professor Spain Bradley has over 7 years of leadership experience in higher education. She’s is currently the inaugural Special Advisor for Strategic Planning and Values at UCLA. From 2020-2023, she served as UCLA’s second Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer where she established UCLA’s Civil Rights Office, implemented key UCLA initiatives to advance inclusive excellence in the academic mission and provided mission-driven leadership for the university community. From 2017-2020, Spain Bradley served as the inaugural Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and Development at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Spain Bradley has significant experience as a U.S. diplomat and civil servant. She has served as Legal Expert to the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards and a U.S. delegate to the United Nations Compensation Commission. She has represented nations as legal counsel before the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. She began her legal career as an Attorney-Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where she earned two Meritorious Honor Awards. Spain Bradley previously worked on climate change policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and international trade agreements at the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former Vice President and Executive Council member of the American Society of International Law, a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders International, and a member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from Denison University.
Drawing on over 20 years of experience in the public sector and in higher education, with time spent in senior leadership and in the C-Suite, Spain Bradley helps organizations motivate people around collective missions and translate values into impact. Spain Bradley blends research-driven insights with real world experience to provide innovative keynote engagements that can be adapted for leadership teams, boards, and the collective employee experience. Her speaking style is authentic, dynamic and uplifting.
TOPICS: Law, Leadership, Organizational Values, DEI, Humanity and the Future of America.
