Constance Horner - Director
August 22, 1985 - May 10, 1989
Constance Horner is the Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management and President Reagan's chief advisor on Federal civil service personnel matters.
Assuming her new duties in August 1985, Horner is responsible for recruiting, training and developing the Federal workforce. She is charged with administering civil service pay and benefits programs, including life and health insurance and the civil service retirement system.
Prior to her new appointment, Horner served as Associate Director for Economics and Government in the Office of Management and Budget. She was responsible for review of the budget, program, operations, and legislative proposals of a number of Federal agencies, including among others the Departments of Treasury, Justice, Transportation, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, and the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, the Small Business Administration, and many regulatory agencies.
She previously served as Director of VISTA--the Federal domestic anti-poverty volunteer program--and Acting Associate Director of ACTION, VISTA's parent agency. In 1981, she also served as Deputy Assistant Director of ACTION for Policy and Planning.
As a member of the Department of Education Transition Group in the Office of President-Elect, Mrs. Horner helped prepare reports on the Department's role in elementary and secondary education and in educational research. During 1980, she was full-time volunteer in policy coordination and development with the George Bush for President Committee and then in the research and policy development section of the Reagan-Bush Committee.
Mrs. Horner, 43, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Chicago. She has contributed articles on public policy for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The American Spectator, and other publications. She has also taught at secondary schools in the United States and at universities abroad. Her husband, Charles Horner, was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Science and Technology in May 1981. They have two children.