Andrew Bridge

Andrew Bridge is a lawyer, author, and advocate for foster care reform in the United States. Best known for his New York Times bestselling memoir "Hope's Boy," Bridge shares his own experiences growing up in foster care and how those experiences shaped his career as an advocate for children in the system. His powerful memoir recounts his journey from a turbulent childhood, marked by separation from his mother and placement in foster care, to his eventual success as a Harvard Law School graduate and an advocate for foster children.

Bridge -- also a Fulbright Scholar and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Writing Resident -- has spent much of his career working to improve the foster care system, focusing on the rights and well-being of children, and garnering coverage in national media such as TIME magazine, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Reader's Digest and PBS in the process.

Bridge began his legal career representing children against the State of Alabama. His work resulted in the closure of one of the most notorious psychiatric institutions in the country, the Eufaula Adolescent Center. After that, he returned home to Los Angeles as the director of the Alliance for Children’s Rights, where he worked to provide legal services to children in foster care and was involved in various efforts to reform child welfare policies on a broader scale. The co-founder of National Adoption Day, he went on to lead California’s largest recruiter of LGBT+ foster and adoptive parents.

A sought-after expert, Bridge has advised senior federal and state officials on reforming the foster care system to meet the needs of families living in poverty. He regularly consults with child welfare systems, children’s facilities, and private foundations. A member of Arizona’s Foster Care Review Board, Bridge advises Arizona’s Juvenile Court on the safety and well-being of individual children in the state’s care.