President

Bradley J. Cook currently serves as the President of the American University of Bahrain, the first comprehensive American-model co-educational university in the Kingdom of Bahrain.  Under his leadership, AUBH became the first U.S. accredited university in Bahrain and among only a handful in the GCC and MENA region.

Prior to this role he served as the President of Snow College and Professor of History. While at Snow, he presided over the largest enrollment growth in the Institution’s history while at the same time graduating its largest class and propelling the College’s rankings to number one in the U.S. in student success by the Chronicle of Higher Education. He was also recognized in 2021 as the best educational administrator in the State of Utah.

Prior to his position at Snow, he served for 10 years as Provost and Executive Vice President at Southern Utah University. While at SUU he worked to elevate SUU’s academic reputation as a premier public regional university and advanced an ambitious agenda of internationalizing the university.  

With nearly 30 years of executive administrative experience in higher education, he has also served as President of the Abu Dhabi Women’s College in the United Arab Emirates, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Utah Valley University, and Vice President of University Relations also at Utah Valley University.

As a student, Dr. Cook completed with honors a bachelor’s and master’s degree at Stanford University, where he also started as a cornerback for Stanford’s football team. As a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellow, he received a doctoral degree in Middle East Studies from the University of Oxford.

He is also the author of the book, Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, published by Brigham Young University Press. He has special research interests in Islamic educational theory, comparative religion, and international and comparative education. Dr. Cook is active in his academic field, maintaining a consistent research and publication agenda. His publications can be found in a wide variety of academic journals.