Janice is the Chief Executive Officer of the Special Library Association and was a Cabinet level officer in the Clinton Administration as Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. She is an attorney and, with her links to 9,000 special libraries around the globe, brings knowledge of library, archive and research practices.
Janice R. Lachance is the 13th chief executive of the Special Libraries Association and a former Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. From 1997 to 2001, Lachance was the Director (CEO) of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the United States’ federal government’s independent human resources agency. Appointed to this position by President Bill Clinton and unanimously confirmed by a bi-partisan U.S. Senate, Janice provided policy and program leadership for 1.8 million federal employees. During her tenure, Clinton advanced the post of OPM Director to Cabinet status, giving her the standing and support needed to elevate human capital issues to the highest possible priority in the United States.
Lachance has led Ministerial-level delegations to the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Republic of China (Taiwan), Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris,France.
Prior to becoming Director of OPM, Janice was the agency’s Deputy Director (1997), Chief of Staff (1996–97), and Director of Communications and Policy (1993–96). Previously, she served as Director of Communications and Political Affairs and policy advisor for the American Federation of Government Employees, (AFGE) (1987–93). After leaving OPM in 2001, Janice transitioned to a management consulting practice specializing in strategic planning, communications, human resources management, and organizational transformation for membership and non-profit organizations.
As CEO of the Special Libraries Association, Janice has led the association’s professional staff and volunteer leaders in a reformulation of the association’s mission, vision and value statements and its strategic plan. She also re-engineered the association’s professional development program to meet the needs of information professionals across corporate, academic and government settings by creating SLA’s online Click University. She expanded SLA’s public policy program, which has increased the association’s influence in legislative, judicial and international proceedings, and has worked in support of an open, robust and independent Internet. She led a multiyear comprehensive research effort to create a shared, evidence based vision of the future role of the information professional.
Janice is a graduate of Tulane University School of Law and a member of the bar in the District of Columbia and Maine. She is a board member of the National Academy of Public Administration and is an elected Fellow of this organization. Janice was chair of the CEO Advisory Board of the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership as well as the President’s Task Force on Federal Training Technology.