Brad Hughes is Director of the Writing Center and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, in the Department of English, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison , where he has taught for the past 22 years.  At Wisconsin 's Writing Center , Hughes works as part of a team of 100 instructional staff, graduate teaching assistants, and undergraduate Writing Fellows, who collectively provide writing assistance to some 7000 undergraduate and graduate students each year. They also collaborate widely with faculty in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.

Hughes has helped lead efforts to establish a writing-intensive course requirement at Wisconsin, led writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) workshops for over 800 faculty and graduate teaching assistants at Wisconsin and at other colleges and universities across the country, developed a new undergraduate Writing Fellows program in writing-intensive courses across the curriculum, created a 200-page sourcebook for writing-intensive instructors at Wisconsin, started a WAC newsletter for faculty, and built partnerships across campus to create and fund satellite writing centers in residence halls and in multicultural student centers.

Hughes has published numerous articles and reviews about writing center and WAC teaching and administration, and he has given over 60 conference papers, invited lectures, and featured and keynote addresses.  Together with Harvey Kail and Paula Gillespie, he has co-developed the peer writing tutor alumni research project. A co-founder of the National College Learning Center Association and past chair of the executive board of the Midwest Writing Centers Association, Hughes is a member of the editorial board of the Writing Center Journal , a member of the executive board of the National Writing Centers Research Project at the University of Louisville, a consultant about writing centers and WAC at many colleges and universities (including Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Notre Dame, Temple University, the University of Illinois, the University of Louisville, and Southeast Louisiana University), and a regular presenter and mentor at the Winter Institutes on Learning Assistance sponsored by the University of Arizona.

Recipient of numerous technology grants, Hughes has developed, with colleagues, one of the most widely used online writing centers in the country ( www.wisc.edu/writing ) and a comprehensive WAC web site for faculty at Wisconsin ( http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~WAC ).  He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including Vanderbilt University ’s award for developing one of the top 100 uses of instructional technology in higher education nationally (1991), the University of Wisconsin 's highest award for service (1991), and the English Department's award for graduate teaching and mentoring (1997).

In the summer of 2003, he co-chaired—with Paula Gillespie from Marquette University —the inaugural week-long institute for writing center directors and professionals, sponsored by the International Writing Centers Association, which was held at the University of Wisconsin in Madison ; participants came from colleges and universities across the country.