Katherine Brittain Bradley ’86
Washington, D.C.

At-Large Candidate

Katherine Brittain Bradley ’86 is founder and president of CityBridge Foundation, a D.C.- based philanthropic organization dedicated to solving domestic and international problems in health and education. “I arrived at Princeton in the fall of 1982 determined to study art history, learn fluent Italian, and spend a semester abroad,” says Bradley. “But in the fall of my sophomore year, during Professor Ken Oye’s International Relations class, something ‘clicked on’ in my mind, like a key opening a lock. I re-vectored toward the Woodrow Wilson School and found a natural home—and a place of intellectual challenge—in the world of policy and problem-solving.”

At Princeton, Bradley earned an AB from the Woodrow Wilson School and a Certificate in Theater & Dance, and many on campus knew her as the lead teacher for Wilson College's popular afternoon aerobics class. After graduation, she headed to Washington, D.C., where, after her marriage to David Bradley, she joined him in growing his then fledgling research company, The Advisory Board. The Advisory Board and its eventual sister company, The Corporate Executive Board, provided “best practices” consulting to financial and medical institutions around the world. The Bradleys sold the companies in 1999 and 2001, and both companies are now publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange.

In 1995, Bradley launched a new venture—CityBridge Foundation—originally the non-profit arm of The Advisory Board and The Corporate Executive Board and one “which would focus on urban poverty alleviation in Washington, D.C,” she explains. Her idea was to apply the “best practices” business model of the two companies to a philanthropic endeavor. “In truth,” she says, “I was looking for a specific issue that CityBridge could tackle for the balance of my career—a problem hard enough, and complex enough, to make sense for a several-decade commitment. I found that issue—and my calling—in the urban school reform movement. I might have saved myself a lot of trouble had I just been a little bit younger and able to join Teach for America right out of college. I came to school reform at a critical time—just as Teach for America recruits and other social entrepreneurs began to prove something that our nation had long thought impossible: lower-income students could achieve at high levels, and in large numbers, with the right leadership and raised expectations.”

Since its inception in 1995, CityBridge has worked at home and abroad forming partnerships to tackle medical and educational problems. It has supported AIDS relief efforts in South Africa, pediatric oncology work in Russia, and treatment for abused children in the Philippines, to name only a few of its projects. On the domestic front, “CityBridge works with best-in-class non-profits to build a strong public education sector in Washington, D.C.,” says Bradley. “With local partners, we launch new schools, recruit and train new kinds of teachers, and deliver literacy-based services to low-income students in Washington, D.C.”

Bradley’s non-profit work has not stopped with CityBridge. She has sat on the boards of Teach for America (in D.C.), the SEED School, City Year, Samaritan Inns, the Black Student Fund, and the Washington Ballet. She has also devoted time to Princeton, serving in many roles: WWS 75th Anniversary member, regional Alumni Schools Committee member, class section chair, special gifts solicitor, and phonathon worker. Of her life in the non-profit world, Bradley says, “To my delight, I find my education work populated with Princetonians—no surprise, given the call to service that remains the hallmark of a Princeton education.” Without question, Katherine Bradley heard that “call to service” and took it very much to heart.