George Sumner Bridges

George Sumner Bridges (born September 16, 1950) is an American sociologist and the President of The Evergreen State College. He has served in this role since October 1, 2015.

A native of Seattle, Washington, Bridges earned his B.A. degree from the University of Washington, and a M.A. in criminology and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

While completing his doctoral work, he served 5 years as a social scientist in the U.S. Department of Justice in the staff office of the United States Attorney General (over the Ford, Carter and Reagan Administrations). One of his roles was Assistant Administrator of the Federal Justice Research Program, conducting, designing and funding research on federal legal policy.

In 1981, Bridges accepted his first academic appointment in sociology at Case Western Reserve University. In 1982, he moved to his alma mater, the University of Washington, with an appointment in the department of sociology. At UW, he rose to the rank of professor and Associate Dean and Associate Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education. In 2000, he was appointed Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education.

Bridges’ scholarly work has examined crime and its measurement as well as law and the administration of law and justice. He has published articles in leading professional journals and several books on these subjects. He studies the causes of racial disparities in imprisonment, identifying the mechanisms by which perceptual biases of racial and ethnic minorities give rise to disproportionately punitive outcomes for minority defendants in criminal cases. These studies of his prompted changes in the laws of state of Washington and federal legal policies on the administration of juvenile justice.

As Dean and Vice Provost at the University of Washington, he led initiatives to advance innovation in teaching and learning for undergraduate students.

Bridges served as president of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2015. In March 2015, he was named president of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, succeeding Thomas L. "Les" Purce.

George Bridges joined Whitman College in 2005 as its 13th president, replacing Tom Cronin. At Whitman, Bridges led the college’s $150 million fundraising campaign, which reported $157 million raised as of March 31, 2015. During his tenure, the college opened the Glover Alston Center (2010); launched initiatives and dedicated funding for innovation in teaching, such as the Cross-Disciplinary Learning and Teaching Initiative; established the college's Global Studies Initiative with a $345,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and expanded academic programs in the life sciences and computer science. The Whitman College Student Engagement Center was also established during Bridges' tenure which, in 2014, offered 120 paid summer internships to Whitman students. In May 2012, Bridges secured a Mellon Grant for $150,000 for "Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities" with a focus on "Presidential Leadership."

While serving at Whitman College, Bridges was appointed to the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) in 2009. In 2013 he was named Vice Chair of the Annapolis Group of the nation’s 100 leading liberal arts colleges and served as Chair of the Annapolis Group in 2014-15. He serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Independent Colleges of Washington. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce in the city of Walla Walla, Washington, the home of Whitman College.

• George S Bridges and Martha A. Myers, eds. Inequality, Crime and Social Control, 1994, Boulder. Colo.: Westview Press.
• George S. Bridges, Robert D. Crutchfield and Joseph G. Weis, eds. Crime and Society: Criminal Justice, 1996, Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Pine Forge Press.
• George S. Bridges and Scott Desmond, eds. Teaching and Learning in Large Classes, 2000, Washington D.C: American Sociological Association.

Dr. Bridges is married to Dr. Kari Tupper. The couple has four children: Anna, James, Lauren and Seth.