Martin "Marty" Blair, PhD
The Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities, University of Montana
Dr. Martin Blair is the Executive Director of the Rural Institute, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at the University of Montana. Blair is responsible for building and strengthening collaborative relationships with strategic partners from a variety of healthcare, education, business and human service disciplines at university, community, state, federal and international levels.
Since joining the Rural Institute in 2013, he has steered efforts to expand the Institute's research and training initiatives in the areas of autism, school reform, family engagement and leadership, disability policy, maternal and child health, tribal community school improvement, home and community-based services, to name a few.
Blair enjoyed the first two years of his career as a middle school special education teacher. He spent the next two decades at Utah's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities as director of the Utah Assistive Technology Program, Chair of Utah's Interagency Outreach Training Initiative, the founding policy director of the National Center on Disability and Access to Education, the Associate Director of the Center for Technical Assistance for Excellence in Special Education, and the University center's Assistant Director for Policy and Development.
Blair currently serves as a Co-Chair of the Public Policy Committee of the Association of University Centers on Disability, where he served as the organization's inaugural Disability Policy Leadership Fellow. He is a Governor appointee on two statewide councils related to disability and early childhood services. Blair's PhD in Education, and degrees in secondary education and special education, were earned from Utah State University.