Martin J. Blank is the Director for School, Family and Community Connections at the Institute for Educational Leadership. In that capacity, Marty serves as the Director for the Coalition for Community Schools. The Coalition brings together leaders and networks in education, family support, youth development community development, government and philanthropy behind a shared vision of community schools. Community schools work to improve student learning and development, strengthen families and build stronger communities.

He led the preparation of Learning Together, a comprehensive map of the revitalized community schools movement across the country. In addition, Marty is the co-author of Together We Can: A Guide for Crafting a Pro-family System of Education and Human Services and What It Takes: Structuring Interagency Partnerships for Comprehensive Services, which helped to fuel school and community partnerships in the past decade.

In Washington, DC, Marty serves as the Chairman of D.C. VOICE a citizen-driven education reform collaborative, and Chair of the management team of the Early Childhood Collaborative.  

He has a B.A. from Columbia University, 1965, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He served as a VISTA Volunteer from 1965-67 in the Missouri Bootheel. His wife is the Director of Leadership and Public Policy at the National Women’s’ Law Center.