David W. Brady holds the Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Professorship of Political Science in the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Davies Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. While at Stanford, where he has been on continual appointment since 1986, Brady has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the GSB and as Vice Provost for Distance Learning. He has twice been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University, Sciences Po in Paris, LUISS University in Rome, and a Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin. Brady was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987. Over his teaching career, he has won the Dinkelspiel Award for service to undergraduates, the Richard Lyman Prize for service to alumni, the Bob Davies Award and the Jaedicke Silver Cup from the GSB, and the first Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award from Stanford. Brady is also the recipient of the George Brown teaching award at Rice University.

He has published eight books and more than a hundred papers in various professional journals. Among his recent publications are Leadership and Growth (World Bank, 2010) co-edited with Michael Spence; Revolving Gridlock: Politics and Policy from Carter to Bush II (Westview, 2006); and Red and Blue Nation? Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics, with Pietro Nivola (Brookings, 2007).