Anita K. Blair

Anita K. Blair is Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy in Manpower and Reserve Affairs in the Department of Defense.

"Anita Blair was the founder of the Independent Women's Forum and also served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and President of the group at various times. Blair was part of the American Conservative Union's 2000 Committee for a Conservative Platform, an effort to preserve the GOP's right-wing platform."  - "Anita Blair was sworn in on 15 August 2001 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (DASN) for Personnel Programs, overseeing military personnel programs and policies including Character, Ethics, and Leadership Development; Equal Opportunity; Minority Representation; Diversity and Gender Integration; Women's Programs; and Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention.

"In prior public service, Ms. Blair chaired the 1998-1999 Congressional Commission on Military Training and Gender-Related Issues, which investigated "cross-gender" issues such as rules on adultery, fraternization and sexual conduct in the military, as well as the effectiveness of military basic training. The Commission conducted several weeks of hearings with nearly 100 witnesses and over a dozen inspection tours of military training and operational facilities, including deployments overseas. The Commission's final report included extensive new scientific studies and surveys of over 30,000 service members.

"Ms. Blair also served for six years on the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors, originally appointed by Governor George Allen in 1995 and reappointed by Gov. James S. Gilmore, III in 1999. She chaired the Board's initial Assimilation Review Task Force, providing continuing oversight of issues related to the admission of women to VMI.

"Before joining the Department of the Navy, Ms. Blair had been a lawyer in private practice in Virginia and the District of Columbia since 1981, concentrating in business law and litigation. She served eight years on the Board of Governors of the Virginia State Bar Section on Antitrust, Franchise and Trade Regulation Law, which she chaired in 1998-1999.

"Beginning in 1992 she was also Executive Vice President and General Counsel and later President of the Independent Women's Forum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and public education on policy issues concerning women. In that capacity Ms. Blair oversaw IWF's participation as amicus curiae in numerous high profile constitutional law cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also frequently appeared in the media and addressed many groups, including presenting testimony before Congress.

"Born in Washington, D.C., Anita Blair attended Catholic schools and received her bachelor's degree in Classical Greek from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1971. She graduated in 1981 from the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, where she met her husband and law partner, C. Douglas Welty."  -

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