Dr. Blanck is University Professor at Syracuse University, which is the highest faculty rank granted to only eight prior individuals in the history of the University. He is Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University. Blanck holds appointments at the Syracuse University Colleges of Law, of Human Services and Health Professions, and of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Prior to his appointment at Syracuse, Blanck was Kierscht Professor of Law and director of the Law, Health Policy, and Disability Center at the University of Iowa.
Blanck has written articles and books on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and related laws, received grants to study disability law and policy, represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court in ADA cases, and testified before Congress. His work has received national and international attention. He is a board member of the National Organization on Disability (N.O.D.), Disability Rights Law Center (DRLC), and Disability Rights Advocates (DRA). He is a trustee of YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities Network. Dr. Blanck is Co-Chair of the Expert Committee on Future of Deinstitutionalization and Community Living in Israel for the Israel Ministry of Welfare and Social Services and board member of the Saks Center for Law, Mental Health, and Ethics at the University of Southern California. He also serves on the Advisory Forum Board of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy in Galway, Ireland, and the National Research Advisory Panel of the National Technical Assistance and Research Center to Promote Leadership for Increasing Employment and Economic Independence of Adults with Disabilities (NTAR Leadership Center).
Blanck received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rochester, a Juris Doctorate from Stanford University, where he was president of the Stanford Law Review, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Blanck is a former member of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, and a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Washington Program, a Fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and a Mary Switzer Scholar. Prior to teaching, Blanck practiced law at the Washington D.C. firm Covington & Burling, and served as law clerk to the late Honorable Carl McGowan of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
- Blanck’s publications in the area are numerous. Recent examples include:
- The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Emerging Workforce (AAMR 1998);
- Employment, Disability, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (Northwestern U. Press 2000);
- Disability Civil Rights Law and Policy (with Hill, Siegal & Waterstone) (West 2005, 2009);
- Race, Ethnicity and Disability (with Logue) (Cambridge U. Press 2010);
- What Jobs Do People with Disabilities Want? The Same as Anyone Else (with Ali, Schur, and Kruse), Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation (2010); and
- Employment of People with Disabilities (with Gottlieb and Myhill), International Encyclopedia of Rehabilitation (2010).
In addition, Blanck and Robin Malloy are editors of the Cambridge University Press series Disability Law and Policy.
