Happy to be a Peorian

Eden S. Blair grew up in Lubbock, Texas to a social worker mother and business professor father. She developed a love of learning from an early age as well as a desire to help the community. As a young teen, Eden was acting as a lab assistant to her junior high’s animal menagerie, digging at the local archeology site, and supporting others through Girl Scouts. When she was 16, Eden traveled half way around the world to Tasmania, Australia as an exchange student, where she earned her Higher School Certifcate.

Continuing her passion to understand her community, Eden attended the University of Houston, where she earned a BA in Sociology. After college, Eden spent two years in National Service, traveling the country doing community service projects from building park trails in Central Tennessee to renovating low-income apartments in Washington, D.C. She continued her community service by working for the 1999 Special Olympics World Games in Raleigh, NC.

Ready to go back to school and realize that many non-profits have passionate people who don’t know much about running an organization, Eden returned home to Texas to earn an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Texas Tech University. Her interest in helping mission-based organizations run better, she went on to earn her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Organzational Behavior.

In 2007, Eden moved to Peoria County to start a job as an Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and is now a Professor of Management and Leadership. She does research in legal issues in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial cognition and was a co-founder of the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She is also a board member of Grafelman Farms Animal Rescue and is on the advisory board of TerraCarbon, LLC.

After many years of creating a family in Peoria, Eden was appointed as the County Board Member for District 6 and was re-relected in 2020 and 2022.