HONORABLE JANICE R. LACHANCE, JD, FASAE
An accomplished exective, widely experience leader and governance expert, Janice's career spans Cabinet-level work in the federal government and executive experience in associations, non-profits, and volunteer activities. A leader in her profession, dedicated volunteer, popular speaker, and trusted advisor, Janice is President of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA); a Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE); and an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) where she ahs served on the Board of Directors, Executive COmmittee, and the NAPA Presidential Transition 2016 Steering Committee.
Prior to her recent work in not-for-profit enterprises, Janice was nominated by President William Clinton and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government’s independent human resources agency, responsible for all policy and programs affecting the 2.1 million members of the nation’s civil service.
President Clinton charged Janice with the task of establishing and gaining recognition of the federal workforce as a national performance model. She is credited with many seminal achievements at OPM, including: reformulating the agency’s mission and strategy as well as re-engineering its 3,700 employee organizational structure and culture; expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act to permit the use of sick leave to care for a newborn or ailing family member; instituting affordable long-term care insurance for ?? million federal employees, members of the armed services, and retirees; making innovative and cost-effective improvements in health insurance and retirement programs; dramatically increasing outreach and recruitment efforts to first-job applicants from underrepresented populations; revitalizing the Presidential Management Fellows Program; and, establishing USAJOBS.gov, the Federal Government's official source for federal job listings and employment opportunity information and which attracts more than 20 million visits annually.
As a cabinet-ranked member of the Clinton Administration leadership team, Janice was appointed by the President to lead five US diplomatic missions, including to China and Israel. The president also appointed her to serve as Chair of the National Labor-Management Partnership Council, as a member of the President’s Management Council and as a Commissioner of the White House Fellows program.
During the past decade, Janice has served as the managing executive in not-for-profit membership associations. Most recent examples Interim President of the Better Business Bureau Institute for Marketplace Trust interim President and CEO of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals International, a global profession of best-in-class customer-care experts.
Previously, Janice served as CEO of the Special Libraries Association for more than 10 years, leading the global association of 8,000 credentialed librarians and scholars who devote more than 25 million hours annually to the operation and expansion of the global information and knowledge economies on behalf of private, academic and public sector enterprise in 75 countries.
Among numerous awards, Janice was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Southern Vermont College in 2013 and Vice President Al Gore’s Reinventing Government Hammer Award for advances in government-wide labor-management partnerships.
Janice was born and raised in Biddeford, Maine, graduated from Manhattanville College, and earned her law degree from Tulane University. She is admitted to practice law in the State of Maine, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court.