P. Bradford Westwood grew up in Provo, Utah, and spent his summers on the Oregon coast. He received his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in American Studies in 1985 and his master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Historic Preservation in 1994. He was on the Board of Directors of the Brigham Young Academy Foundation from 1985 to 1989, and was one of the co-founders of the Foundation. He worked for the Brigham Young University's L. Tom Perry Special Collections and served as the assistant chair from 1997 to 2002, and chair from 2002 to 2008. In 2009, Brad became the manager of Collection Development for the Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2013, he was appointed the director of the Utah Division of State History. He is the co-founder of the A. Dean Larsen Book Collectors Conference. His subject specialties include rare books and manuscripts, the administration of cultural repositories, architectural history (19th/20th Century American and European), and historic preservation.