Ken Blackwell is the Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment at the Family Research Council, and the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow for Public Policy at the Buckeye Institute in Columbus, Ohio. He is a visiting fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the American Civil Rights Union. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Club for Growth, National Taxpayers Union and Pastors Retreat Network. Mr. Blackwell is also the Chairman for the Coalition for a Conservative Majority, and a member of the National Rifle Association's Public Affairs Committee. He is a columnist for the New York Sun, a contributing editor and columnist for the conservative news and opinion site Townhall.com, and a public affairs commentator for the Salem Radio Network. He has a distinguished record of achievement as a finance executive, entrepreneur, diplomat, educator and independent corporate director. He is one of the nation's leading conservative voices and a strong advocate free market enterprise. In 2006, he became the first African-American in Ohio history to be a major party nominee for governor. In 2004, the American Conservative Union and the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs honored Mr. Blackwell with the John M. Ashbrook Award for his steadfast conservative leadership. Past recipients of the award include President Ronald Reagan, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and Charlton Heston. Mr. Blackwell's public service includes terms as mayor of Cincinnati, an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. In 1994, he became the first African-American elected to a statewide executive office in Ohio when he was elected treasurer of state. He subsequently was elected to two terms as secretary of state. Mr. Blackwell is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (2003- present), a director of the Academy for Government Accountability (2007-present), and a former member of the federal senior executive service. He was co-chairman of the board of directors of the Campaign Finance Institute (2003-06) in Washington, D.C. and a member of the Harvard Policy Group on Network-Enabled Services and Government (2003-06). Mr. Blackwell has been a member of the national advisory boards of the Princeton Review (2000-06) and Youth for Christ (2003-05). He is a former chairman of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board (1998-2001) and member of the Advisory Panel of the Federal Elections Commission (1999-2003). In addition, Mr. Blackwell served on the board of directors of the ICMA Retirement Corporation (1999- 2004), Fifth Third Bank, Fifth Third Bancorp (1993-94), the Cincinnati Public Employees Retirement System (1985-88) and Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospitals (1996-99). In 2002, he received meritorious recognition from the Center for Digital Government, and was recognized by Government Technology magazine as one of the top 25 public sector leaders in information technology. He is a past president of the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council. More than 25 years ago, he began his work in using technology to help government fulfill its mission and commitment to citizens as a member of the board of directors of Public Technology, Inc., located in Washington, D.C. A certified government finance manager, Mr. Blackwell was a 1999 recipient of the Government Finance Officers Association's Excellence in Government Award. In 2006, he received the prestigious National Leadership Award from the National Forum for Black Public Administrators. He was formerly a Fellow at the Heritage Foundation (1990) in Washington, D.C. He has served on the U.S. Department of Labor's Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. Mr. Blackwell was a delegate to the White House Summit on Retirement Savings in 1998 and 2002. During the 1990s, he served on the congressionally appointed National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, and in 1998, he co-edited a book with Jack Kemp, entitled, IRS v. The People: Time for Real Tax Reform. In 2006, he co-authored with Jerome R. Corsi Rebuilding America: A Prescription for Creating Strong Families, Building the Wealth of Working People, and Ending Welfare. An advocate for tax simplification and government reform, Mr. Blackwell has testified before Congressional committees on taxation, government operations, election systems, education, and banking matters. Mr. Blackwell also has served on the boards of directors of the International Republican Institute, the American Council of Young Political Leaders, and the Congressional Human Rights Foundation. He was a scholar-in-residence at the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights at the University of Cincinnati College of Law (19991-93). As the U.S. Representative to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, he led the U.S. delegation to all four of the preparatory meetings for the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and presently serves on the advisory board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. His international activities have taken him to 53 countries and strengthened his understanding of emerging international markets and the growth of democracy worldwide. Mr. Blackwell has held the nation's highest security clearance, and twice received the U.S. Department of State's Superior Honor Award from the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton for his work in the field of human rights. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Education degrees from Xavier University (OH), where he later served as a vice president and member of its faculty. In 1992, he received Xavier's Distinguished Alumnus Award. He has been a Fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, the Aspen Institute, the Salzburg Seminar in Austria and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (British-American Project). His continuing education has included executive programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Among his awards are honorary doctoral degrees from several institutions of higher education in Ohio, including Ashland University (2002), Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (1999), Lourdes College (2003), Wilberforce University (1980), Wilmington College (1996), Urbana University (1997), Indiana Wesleyan University (2005) and Franklin Pierce College (1992) in New Hampshire. He is a recipient of the Veritas Award (1998) from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut and the President's Award for Public Service and Leadership (1995) from Central State University in Ohio. In 1998, Mr. Blackwell delivered the Becket Lecture on Religious Liberty at Oxford University. Since the spring of 2004, he has been a member of the Arlington Group, an influential national coalition of pro-life, pro-family and religious leaders and organizations. He has lectured at Harvard, the University of New Castle in England, and the Moscow State Institute for International Relations in Russia, and the International Academy of Public Administration in Paris. Many of his speeches and lectures have been published in "Vital Speeches of the Day." His commentaries have been carried in major newspapers across the United States, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, as well as all major newspapers in Ohio. He is a regular guest commentator for Salem Communications. Salem Communications operates 59 radio stations in 22 of the nation's top 25 markets and owns 95 stations nationally. He also has been a frequent guest on network and cable news and public affairs programs, including Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, CNN's Crossfire and Inside Politics, MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, and PBS's The Jim Lehrer Newshour and Tavis Smiley Late Night. Mr. Blackwell is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati. He was a founding partner of the highly successful Blue Chip Broadcasting Company, a network of 20 urban format radio stations. At the time of its sale in 2001, Blue Chip Broadcasting had become the second largest African-American owned radio company in the nation. He and his wife of 39 years, Rosa, who currently serves as superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools, have three adult children. In 1994, the Blackwells were honored as one of the National Council of Negro Women's Families of the Year, and, in 1996, Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell together received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Dreamkeeper Award from the Cincinnati Historical Society. In 2006, the Blackwells became minority shareholders in the Cincinnati Reds, the city's major league baseball team. Mr. Blackwell is a member of the Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, the Ohio Gun Collectors Association, the Literary Club of Cincinnati and is a life member of the NAACP. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2009 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ President Barack Obama has completed his months-long "deliberations" over his latest Afghanistan policy. He got more applause from Republicans than from Democrats after his long-running Hamlet act. The Prince of Denmark... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/12/16/somethings_still_rotten_in_denmark 76c916a6-a8e2-4999-bda8-b8d95bef23b4 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT President Obama has made  his way back from the Copenhagen climate summit. The summit has sparked vigorous discussion on the Internet and throughout the world. Internationally, calls are coming for implementation of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/12/15/a_modest_proposal be5c964a-e213-4c6a-86f4-a1dfc25f6ab4 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT This piece is co-written by Ken Klukowski.Ex-White House counsel Greg Craig thought it was a good idea to transfer Elián Gonzalez from the arms of his loving family in Miami into the arms of Fidel Castro. Transfer Elián... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/12/05/de-fund_eric_holders_manhattan_transfer f7c17210-9cfc-4699-80af-e85ad81d92aa Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT I like the catalogs that fill our mailboxes at this time of year. They're fun to page through on long flights, or even in the barber's chair, even if I don't intend to buy anything. "Signals" markets all the great stuff... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/12/03/she_who_must_be_obeyed 987240c2-b35c-4433-b979-b90fec4da86e Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT We don't yet know how bad the Ft. Hood shooter's case was. We do not know-and we must find out-how it was possible for an Army medical officer to openly express treasonous statements and not be court martialed. We do... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/30/dismiss_general_casey a439af91-7848-4264-a0ae-107dd18752e6 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:58:08 GMT "Government Distrust and a Dead Census Taker." That was the headline of a September 25th story in TIME about the death of 51-year old Bill Sparkman. Sparkman's naked body had been found in a remote area of Harlan... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/28/will_time_magazine_apologize_to_glenn_beck a846d125-929e-46a0-9d1b-c97d3aaf7bb5 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV. Nor is Steve Pearlstein a doctor. Pearlstein is the respected business columnist of the Washington Post. His weekly column scorched President Obama's Health and Human... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/26/politicizing_medicine,_medicalizing_politics c16f3d38-8349-4f19-bc88-8702e1468a77 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT You have to wonder who briefed the Chief Executive for his interview with NBC News. The White House's resident admirer of Chairman Mao, Communications Director Anita Dunn, had already bailed out. Whoever it was must... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/22/obama_in_wonderland d9bebd85-fb87-4171-b5f7-506513948e5b Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:00:04 GMT "Cost of indecision about Afghanistan is mounting." That's not a headline on Townhall.com. It's the title of a column by the dean of liberal Washington pundits, David Broder.Even David Broder is concerned about... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/21/obamas_indecision f006fe4b-3be3-4eab-b33d-957fa02966c6 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT One of the reasons liberals are so hostile to public expressions of Christianity is because it threatens the monopoly that the religion of liberalism enjoys in the public square. The late Ted Kennedy was more than a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/19/liberals_establishment_of_religion 90fe3a99-0fb1-4e6d-8842-1d1c2d538009 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker has written a powerful commentary today on the appalling issue of forced abortion in China. Miss Parker interviewed Reggie Littlejohn, a women's rights activist, who testified... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/14/china_and_forced_abortions 5c941e43-ae9f-4382-9b06-0fcf7f161b0a Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT There's a vicious rumor being reported in Washington. It says President Obama was holding off his announcement of new troop movements into Afghanistan not until after Hamid Karzai's election runoff that had... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/11/03/ditherer-in-chief e6fe98d5-0abc-466a-9c99-a3eb480ce9d7 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT President Obama's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) seems determined to go after a small Catholic college in North Carolina. Readers of First Things, the thoughtful journal founded by Rev. Richard Neuhaus,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/10/29/got_monks__get_the_monks! d3277763-e5cb-4cf5-8176-4488356cba8a Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT As an old football player, I'm only too familiar with the phenomenon of the "Monday morning quarterback." But the Democratic party, and specifically, the Obama White House political operation, have a new variation: They http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/10/24/in_virginia,_a_done_deeds 9e1bfb26-4447-4467-a65d-caabad3962a6 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:00:03 GMT The ruling (barely) Palestinian party on the West Bank has just about lost patience with President Obama. That didn't take long. The Fatah "party" is the creation of Yassir Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prizewinner who... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/10/15/obamas_$900m_mess ee098990-7f0d-4f7e-8943-87c2ef79f9b2 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT