Alpha Brady
2024 Awardee
- Enrique
- April 8, 2024
- | Categories: Ezra Wiki
Professional Life & Education
I serve as the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the American Bar Association (“ABA”), the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world and the national voice of the legal profession. In this role, as the first African American woman, I am the executive staff leader of more than 1,000 staff members in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Texas and California; responsible for a $220 million budget. I joined the ABA in 1988. Before becoming executive director in 2023, previous positions held included Deputy Executive Director with executive management responsibilities for entities providing management, national leadership, legal policy development and strategic planning. I received my bachelor’s degree in business administration and history from Elmhurst University and my J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
Building Stronger Communities
I am in this role because GOD placed me here and I have the prayers of my family, my faith community, and supporters. I seek to live as the servant of the five talents (Matthew 25:14-16;19-21), to take the talents GOD has blessed me to have and to multiply them by helping others.
I share these talents through my leadership of the Center for Re-Creation And Family Training, Inc. which seeks to develop and implement programs directed towards building a stronger, more productive African-American community, primarily serving the youth and families of the Pembroke/Hopkins Park/Momence/Kankakee area of Illinois, offering mentoring and character building programs as well as scholarships for college students from the area.
Christian Leadership and Youth Mentoring
I serve on the Law Board of the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law which provides advice to help shape strategy and acts and as advocate for the Law School in the legal profession, business community, and general public.
On a very personal level, I am a mentor to young people, especially African American women, seeking to provide guidance to young people looking to be productive citizens in society.
I develop this sense of paying it forward from my upbringing. I was born in Chicago, but raised in Pembroke, Illinois. My parents, Rev. Hezekiah and Mrs. Myrna Brady, planted the seed to have a love for the LORD and also have a giving spirit in my five sisters and me.
I matriculated from the high school Christian Institute for the Development of Altruistic Leaders, which strongly emphasized Christian leadership and altruism, instilling in me the responsibility to always seek ways to give to others.
Glorifying God
I am a tithing member of Pembroke Fellowship Church. I also receive spiritual feeding from Progressive Baptist Church.
My prayer each day is that I let my light shine so that people may see my good works and glorify GOD. (Matthew 5:16)