While completing his doctoral work, he served five years as a social scientist in the U.S. Department of Justice in the staff office of the United States Attorney General. One of his roles was Assistant Administrator of the Federal Justice Research Program, conducting, designing and funding research on federal legal policy.
Academic career
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. As Dean and Vice Provost at the University of Washington, he led initiatives to advance innovation in teaching and learning for undergraduate students.
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 ; 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." Bridges's leadership at Whitman College was not without controversy. In 2010, Whitman College ended "need blind" admissions and by 2014 became the least economically diverse top college in the United States. While serving at Whitman College, Bridges was appointed to the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in 2009. In 2013 he was named Vice Chair of the Annapolis Group of the nation’s 102 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 ofWalla Walla, Washington, the home of Whitman College.
Evergreen State
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 Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, succeeding Thomas L. "Les" Purce. Bridges was president in 2017 when the campus was shut down during a series of protests in response to a perceived growing racial inequality and oppression. During a sit-in, Bridges was prevented from using the bathroom without an escort by students who believed he would attempt to leave campus.
Publications
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.
