Anna Spain Bradley Appointed as Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

June 8, 2020

To the Campus Community:

Chancellor Block and I are pleased to announce the appointment of Anna Spain Bradley as UCLA’s vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion, effective September 1, 2020.

In this capacity, Vice Chancellor Spain Bradley will serve as the senior campus official responsible for leading and coordinating efforts to create an inclusive environment for all students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community partners by fostering and affirming a campus culture based on our core values of excellence, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and by facilitating an integrated vision and shared responsibility for advancing these institutional goals. The vice chancellor’s broad areas of focus include high-level coordination of campuswide diversity initiatives; strategic planning; training, education, and research; community relations; policy development; compliance; campus climate issues; communications; and fundraising.

The painful events of recent weeks have underscored the importance of the critical work that every institution in America must do to turn our nation’s promises into reality, and I am confident that Professor Spain Bradley is uniquely suited to coordinate UCLA’s efforts to nurture a campus — and a broader community — built on equity, inclusion, respect, and justice.

Professor Spain Bradley is a scholar, educator, and advocate who is passionate about promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and human dignity for all. She returns to UCLA from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she has served as assistant vice provost for faculty development and diversity (2017–20), and is professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School (2009–20), where she previously served as the director of the International Human Rights LLM program (2017–18). As assistant vice provost, she led policy development; served on the authoring committee for the campus Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan; developed and provided training; and advanced initiatives for improving campus diversity and inclusion.

An expert in international law and human rights, Professor Spain Bradley is currently writing a book on global racism and human rights, and she has been invited to advise the United Nations, foreign governments, and international organizations on these matters. She is the author of Human Choice in International Law, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2021, as well as a casebook, numerous book chapters, law review articles, and shorter works. She has received the American Society of International Law’s Francis Lieber Award and the Gamm Justice Award in recognition of excellence in scholarship. She teaches courses in international human rights, international dispute resolution, mediation, and national security, and she has served as a faculty adviser to CU’s Black Law Students Association and International Human Rights LLM students. In 2018, she was one of four educators in the nation to receive an OZY Educator Award.

Prior to joining the University of Colorado faculty, Professor Spain Bradley served as deputy director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and lecturer at the UCLA School of Law. She previously served as attorney-adviser at the U.S. Department of State Office of the Legal Adviser and as a delegate to the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, twice earning the U.S. Department of State’s Meritorious Honor Award. She has held positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she worked on climate change policy, and at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where she worked on international trade agreements. In addition, she has more than 20 years of experience as a mediator helping communities and people resolve disputes and end conflicts, and she is a founding member and former board member of Mediators Beyond Borders International. She occasionally serves as legal counsel for nations before international tribunals and frequently gives keynote talks to a variety of audiences.

Professor Spain Bradley is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, former member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and admitted to the state bar of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. in environmental studies at Denison University and her J.D. at Harvard Law School, where she served as an executive editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. She has worked in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, and South America.

I want to thank the search/advisory committee members for assembling an outstanding pool of candidates and for their roles in recruiting Anna. Devon Carbado, the Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law and former associate vice chancellor of BruinX for equity, diversity and inclusion, was the committee chair. Other members were:

Miguel A. García-Garibay – dean of the Division of Physical Sciences; distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry
Lynn K. Gordon – professor of ophthalmology; senior associate dean, equity and diversity inclusion, David Geffen School of Medicine
Sandra Graham – distinguished professor of education; Presidential Chair in Education and Diversity
Vivyana Sol Prado – undergraduate student; chair, MEChA de UCLA
Asma Sayeed – professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures; program director, Islamic studies
Suzanne L. Seplow – assistant vice chancellor, student development and health/academic partnerships
Shannon Speed – professor of gender studies and anthropology; director, American Indian Studies Center
Menelik Tafari – graduate student; diversity coordinator and life skills instructor, Crossroads School
Miguel M. Unzueta – senior associate dean of MBA programs; professor of management and organizations, UCLA Anderson School of Management
David K. Yoo – vice provost, Institute of American Cultures; professor of Asian American studies and history
Min Zhou – professor of sociology and Asian American studies; Walter and Shirley Wang Endowed Chair in U.S.-China Relations and Communications

I also want to recognize and thank Jerry Kang for his exemplary leadership as our inaugural vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion since 2015. As Chancellor Block mentioned in a campus announcement last fall, the procedures and systems Jerry established have provided us with an institutional map to help inform and guide our continued efforts to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion at UCLA. We look forward to his continued leadership and contributions to campus as he returns to his research and teaching on June 30. I also am pleased to share that Carole Goldberg, distinguished research professor, Jonathan D. Varat Distinguished Professor of Law Emerita, and former vice chancellor for academic personnel, has agreed to serve on an interim basis during July and August, until Anna’s term commences.

Chancellor Block and I recognize that this position is of paramount importance to our campus community. We know we can count on you to support Vice Chancellor Spain Bradley and to partner with her in the vital work of putting UCLA’s principles into practice. Please join us in congratulating Anna and welcoming her back to campus and into this new role.

Sincerely,

Emily A. Carter
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost