AGU Board of Directors selects new Executive Director and CEO Janice R. Lachance

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Board of Directors and Executive Search Committee is pleased to announce AGU’s new Executive Director and CEO is Janice R. Lachance, J.D., Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives (FASAE) and the National Academy of Public Administration.

The Board of Directors and the Executive Search Committee believe Janice embodies the versatile leadership qualities and competencies required to lead AGU’s complex scientific enterprise into the next decade.

The Board began the search process in 2024 as it formed a diverse Search Committee with volunteer leaders from around the world. The process involved vetting the right recruitment partner and taking a good amount of time to carefully define the position description and responsibilities. It was important to the Search Committee and AGU officers that the ED/CEO job description accurately reflected the dynamic individual required to fill it. After working closely alongside Janice in earnest in recent months, the AGU Board officers were in strong agreement that Janice’s performance to date accurately reflected the job description and was well-positioned to continue to lead AGU into the future.

The Search Committee believed Janice to be the right leader to guide AGU during these challenging political times. She is smart, savvy, and leaning into the unusual circumstances to serve as a beacon of hope for AGU members and our partners. She has demonstrated a strong intellect, capacity, and commitment to be our scientific champion. She is dedicated to leading AGU and the global scientific enterprise into a more sustainable and brighter future.”

Janice served as AGU’s interim Executive Director and CEO (ED/CEO) the last two years, and an additional six years in senior leadership roles at AGU. She is an attorney admitted to practice law in the State of Maine, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court. She is a highly respected association executive and a trusted advisor to several U.S. Presidents and elected officials.

The Search Committee was unanimous in its decision to advance Janice, and the Board has total confidence in her extensive, successful policy-focused career and leadership qualities. Like the Search Committee, the members of the Board were unanimous in their vote to offer Janice the ED/CEO position, which she accepted.

Guy P. Brasseur, Ph.D., a member of the Search Committee, expressed that he was particularly pleased that Janice had accepted the responsibility of becoming CEO of the AGU. He added, “Janice has an excellent reputation as a fair and effective leader whose interventions are always balanced and meaningful. At the same time, she has shown her determination to support rational and open science involving a wide range of researchers in a multidisciplinary, intercultural and international framework. At a time when academic freedom is increasingly under threat, the AGU must stand strong to defend the geophysical sciences and show that fundamental research is the keystone of our future and the foundation of our future economic development.”

Janice’s achievements in AGU senior leadership positions include leading the reconstruction of the headquarters building into Washington, D.C.’s first net-zero energy renovation of a commercial building and overseeing several departments and programs. She also led two major elements of AGU’s strategic plan: growing AGU into a truly global association and developing a strategy to evaluate potential global partners. Lachance’s overall strategic mindset has ensured that AGU programs and policies rise above political boundaries and share AGU values, including the commitment to advocating for science’s role in benefiting society and the planet. This approach opened the way for robust partnerships across a variety of global science societies and many divisions of the United Nations.

Before her work in the nonprofit sector, she was nominated by President Clinton and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Cabinet-ranked Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where she managed policy and programmatic leadership of the nation’s 2.1-million-member civil service. Prior to becoming Director, Janice served as OPM’s Director of Communications and Policy, Chief of Staff, and Deputy Director.

Janice has also served as Chair of the National Labor-Management Partnership Council, a member of the President’s Management Council, a Commissioner of the White House Fellows program, and a member of the President’s Council on the 2000 Presidential Transition.

More recently, Janice held two appointments within the Biden-Harris Administration. Earlier in her career, she held leadership positions with the American Library Association, the Better Business Bureau’s Foundation, as CEO of the Special Library Association, and other organizational roles.

Janice is a Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives, an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Wise Giving Alliance, a past member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Postsecondary Education Value Commission, and is a past president of ASPA – the American Society for Public Administration.