Mr. Ronald E. Blakely was named the Army Minority Institutions Program Manager on March 3, 1997. Subsequent to joining the Army’s Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Office, he served as an EEO Specialist and HBCU Program Manager for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mr. Blakely has previously served as the EEO Officer at Ft. Monroe Headquarters US Army Training and Doctrine Command and as an EEO Specialist at Headquarters, US Army Materiel Command in Alexandria, Virginia. He later joined the Office of Civil Rights staff at the US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC. Mr. Blakely is a 1974 graduate of Tuskegee University, where he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, Adjutant General Corps, US Army. He served on active duty with the US Army until 1980. He later served with the District of Columbia Air National Guard and the US Air Force Reserves. Mr. Blakely has more than twenty-two years of active and reserve service. His military awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation and others.

During his tenure with the EPA, Mr. Blakely was instrumental in developing EPA’s Black Employment Program and HBCU program. He worked with the Agency’s Human Resources Office and the Office of Research and Development to implement several highly successful employment and educational programs. Those programs included the Summer Faculty Fellowship, Faculty Exchange, Campus Executive and Minority Intern Programs. Mr. Blakely was also responsible for creating several programs that provided EPA’s minority scientists an opportunity to present research papers at professional workshops and symposiums. He also piloted EPA’s HBCU Equipment Transfer Program that provided excess and surplus equipment to HBCUs with environmental education programs or engaged in conducting environmental research.

He is a graduate of Tuskegee and Pepperdine Universities, where he received degrees in Social Work and Human Resources Management. He has completed several military service schools to include the Adjutant General Officers’ course, DOD Equal Opportunity School, Squadron Officers School and the Air Command and Staff Course. Mr. Blakely currently resides in Prince George’s County, Maryland with his spouse and daughter.