Isaac Gregory Bryan (born January 16, 1992) is an American politician serving as a Member of the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Califor ...

where he represents the 55th district, which includes much of

South Central Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of Downtown Los Angeles, downtown. It is de ...

. Bryan was previously the executive director of the

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Cal ...

's Black Policy Project, and served as the Director of Public Policy for the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Ralph J. Bunche Center. From July to November 2023, he served as Assembly Majority Leader.

Early life and education

Bryan was born in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, to a teenage mother in poverty who gave him up at birth. Bryan was

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

as an infant and has lived in California since he was in the sixth grade. His family served as a

foster family Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family member a ...

for hundreds of children over two decades and adopted him and eight others from the child welfare system. Bryan attended seven public schools and two California community colleges before earning a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. He worked as a

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

for the Rombach Institute on Crime, Delinquency and Corrections. During his time with the Rombach Institute, Bryan worked on

juvenile justice Juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal systems, chi ...

and

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

reform. He also worked with a team of federal monitors to enforce a

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

Consent Decree with the

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) is the law enforcement agency that serves Maricopa County, Arizona, and is the largest Sheriffs in the United States, sheriff's office in Arizona. The MCSO provides patrol services and criminal invest ...

. Bryan went on to earn a

Master of Public Policy The Master of Public Policy (MPP) is a graduate-level professional degree. It provides training in policy analysis and program evaluation at public policy schools. The MPP program places a focus on the systematic analysis of issues related to pu ...

from

UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs (officially the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs) is the public affairs/public service graduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles. The school consists of three gradu ...

. In 2017, Bryan was named a

David Bohnett Foundation The David Bohnett Foundation is a private foundation that gives grants to organizations that focus on its core giving areas – primarily Los Angeles area programs and LGBT rights in the United States, as well as leadership initiatives and voter e ...

fellow, where Bryan previously served in

Los Angeles Mayor The mayor of Los Angeles is the head of the executive branch of the government of Los Angeles and the chief executive of Los Angeles. The office is officially nonpartisan, a change made in the 1909 charter; previously, both the elections and t ...

Eric Garcetti Eric Michael Garcetti (born February 4, 1971) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the List of ambassadors of the United States to India, United States ambassador to India from 2023 to 2025. He was the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles f ...

's Office of Reentry, where he co-authored the city's first report on the

holistic Holism is the interdisciplinary idea that systems possess properties as wholes apart from the properties of their component parts. Julian Tudor Hart (2010''The Political Economy of Health Care''pp.106, 258 The aphorism "The whole is greater than t ...

needs of Angelenos with justice system involvement.

Career

UCLA Black Policy Project

Bryan is the founding director of UCLA's Black Policy Project (BPP). The BPP aims to build connections between black scholarship at UCLA and public policy decision making. Bryan also served as director of Public Policy for UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. During his time at UCLA, Bryan authored numerous studies and reports. Bryan and The Million Dollar Hoods Project issued several reports on the interactions between students and Los Angeles School Police Department. Bryan regularly provided media commentary on issues of

racial inequality in the United States Overview In the United States, racial inequality refers to the social inequality and advantages and disparities that affect different races. These can also be seen as a result of historic oppression, inequality of inheritance, or racism an ...

. During the summer of 2020, after the murder of

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit tw ...

, Bryan led peaceful protests in Los Angeles.

Criminal justice reform

Bryan was one of the leading scholars who articulated that " defunding police" was really a call to question the size of our tax contributions to policing and criminalization at the expense of social services. Bryan was the co-chair for Los Angeles County's historic Measure J, which was approved by over 2.1 million voters and diverts at least 10% of the county's general funds "to address the disproportionate impact of racial injustice through community investment and alternatives to incarceration". Bryan regularly writes and provides commentary on policing and justice reform in the United States. He has been an outspoken advocate on the need to end the criminalization of poverty.

California State Assembly

Election

In 2021, Bryan announced that he would be a candidate for the California Assembly to succeed fellow Democrat Sydney Kamlager, who was elected to the California Senate. Bryan's campaign for the Assembly was endorsed by many people across Los Angeles. Bryan won the special election to represent the 54th district outright securing over 50% in the primary despite five other candidates, and was sworn into office. On July 3, 2023 Bryan was named Majority Leader of the Assembly, replacing Eloise Reyes. During his time in the Legislature Bryan established the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health Law and Policy, ended prison gerrymandering, returned millions in stolen foster youth benefits, shut down the largest urban oil field in California, established a registry for people living with ALS, improved student health insurance coverage, expanded restorative justice practices
and started a select committee on Poverty and Economic Inclusion.
Bryan is a member of the

California Legislative Progressive Caucus The California Legislative Progressive Caucus is a California political organization composed of progressive members of the California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the ...

.In 2024, Bryan was elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus.

Electoral history

References

External links

Join California Isaac G. Bryan
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Isaac 1992 births 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American academics Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights activists African-American state legislators in California American anti-racism activists Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly Living people Politicians from Los Angeles University of Arizona alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty 21st-century members of the California State Legislature