Anita K. Blair Biography

Anita K. Blair Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Total Force Transformation and Military Personnel Policy)
	Effective 1 February 2005, Anita Blair assumed the responsibilities of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Total Force Transformation (TFT). As the Deputy Assistant Secretary (TFT), she serves as the Program Executive for the Department of the Navy’s human capital transformation agenda, leading efforts to modernize the management of the Department’s total force of active duty, reserve, civilian, and contractor personnel. Working closely with the other Deputy Assistant Secretaries and with the military Services, the Department seeks to develop a human capital management system that is agile, flexible, and integrated in support of contemporary requirements, including meeting the challenges of the Global War on Terrorism. Dual-hatted as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Military Personnel Policy (DASN (MPP)), Anita Blair is also responsible for policy and oversight related to personnel matters affecting Navy and Marine Corps active duty service members and their families. Issues include recruiting and retention; training and education; active duty strength and compensation; character, leadership development, and equal opportunity; health affairs; counterdrug programs; family support; and morale, welfare and recreation. She was sworn in on 15 August 2001.
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 (VMI) Board of Visitors, originally appointed by Governor George Allen in 1995 and reappointed by Governor 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 (IWF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and public education on policy issues concerning women. Among other activities, Ms. Blair appeared in the media, testified before Congress, and oversaw IWF's participation as amicus curiae in several high profile constitutional law cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. 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.

Aligning Naval Personnel to Naval Power 21