Education, Career & Activities

Brady received an AAS in Textile Technology from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1977, where she graduated cum laude. She completed a BS in Textile Technology from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences in 1979 and an MS in Textile Engineering from Philadelphia University in 1999.

Brady went to work for Crown Textile Company as a textile technologist from 1979 to 1981. In 1981, she joined Philadelphia University as supervisor of the Grundy Materials Evaluation Laboratory and in 1986, became an adjunct instructor. While an adjunct instructor, she also served as an instructor of the Textile Testing Training Program and developed and taught or co-taught onsite textile testing training programs nationally internationally (2000-2002). In 2002, Brady became an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering and Textiles at Philadelphia University. From 2004 through 2012, she served as a Leader of Materials Evaluation with the Laboratory for Engineering Human Protection (LEHP) and as a member of the LEHP Garment and Comfort Teams. In 2005, she became program coordinator of Textile Engineering Technology. In 2008, Brady was promoted to Associate Professor at the School of Design & Engineering at Philadelphia University.

From 2014 through 2015, Brady was the lead investigator of the Warrior Web Research Project, a DARPA-funded project to develop an exoskeleton supporting pack weight for soldiers (a subcontractor to the University of Delaware). In 2015, she became Faculty Director of Grundy Materials Evaluation Laboratory. In July 2017, Philadelphia University joined with Thomas Jefferson University. That same year, Brady was promoted to Associate Professor in the School of Design & Engineering at the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering, & Commerce, Thomas Jefferson University. In 2020, she became Faculty Director of the Bruner Materials Characterization Laboratory at Thomas Jefferson University.