Brian Blalock

Senior Directing Attorney

Brian Blalock was formerly the Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department, where he oversaw the Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, and Children’s Behavioral Health systems. During his tenure, CYFD underwent many reforms, including launching extended foster care in which 95% of all youth were stably housed and connected to therapeutic services, rebuilding the community based mental health services system for youth, creating an Office of Youth Homelessness, decreasing out of state placements by more than half, and increasing initial relative placements from 5% to 40% among others. More information about the Department under his tenure can be found in CYFD’s Impact Report available here. Before going to New Mexico, Brian was the Law and Policy Director at Tipping Point Community, a non-profit in San Francisco, where he led research and development projects in collaboration with the public sector to foster workable solutions to complex problems related to poverty including a $125 million initiative tackling homelessness in the Bay Area. Prior to joining Tipping Point, Brian was a Skadden Fellow at Bay Area Legal Aid, where he founded and directed the Youth Justice Project (YJP). With a team of attorneys and social workers, YJP provided civil legal services and direct representation to youth involved in the delinquency, dependency, and homelessness systems under the age of 25.  Brian has also worked as a religious affairs consultant, a fight trainer, a lecturer in law, and a public school teacher in the south Bronx. He has graduate degrees from Columbia and Harvard and a law degree from Stanford Law School. BAR ADMISSION: California