Constance Joan Horner (born February 24, 1942, nee McNeely) is an American businesswoman, known for being the third Director of the
United States Office of Personnel Management
The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that manages the US civilian service. The agency provides federal human resources policy, oversight and support, and tends t ...
as well as President Reagan's chief advisor on Federal civil service personnel matters. She was a presidential appointee in the Administrations of
President Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
and
President George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; p ...
.
Horner worked for OPM from August 22, 1985 through May 10, 1989. During her time in the Reagan administration she also served as Associate Director for Economics and Government in the
Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
. She approved the budget and legislative proposals of many of Federal agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, Justice, Transportation, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development. She was the Director of
VISTA
Vista usually refers to a distant view.
Vista may also refer to:
Software
*Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007
*VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) ...
as well as Acting Associate Director of ACTION, VISTA's parent agency.
She later served as Assistant to the President in the Bush administration where he appointed her
deputy secretary of health and human services
The deputy secretary of health and human services (formerly the under secretary of health, education, and welfare, 1953–1979, and the under secretary of health and human services, 1979–1990) is the chief operating officer of the United States D ...
and later director of Presidential Personnel where she advised the President on "the selection of appointees to cabinet and sub-cabinet posts, ambassadorships, judgeships, regulatory agencies, and commissions." During her nomination hearing for the position at Health and Human Services, Senator
David Durenberger
David Ferdinand Durenberger (born August 19, 1934) is a retired American politician and attorney. Durenberger represented Minnesota in the United States Senate as a Republican from 1978 to 1995. He left the Republican Party in 2005 and has become ...
said of Horner " you had to find somebody inside the system who was never satisfied that the system worked well enough for the people it is supposed to serve, it would be Constance Horner."
After she left the White House Horner was a guest scholar at the
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
, writing and lecturing on public organization management reforms. She is a lecturer and writer on the subject of managing the Federal Government. Her writing on public policy has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The American Spectator. As of 2013 she served on the boards of directors of The Prudential Insurance Company of America,
Ingersoll-Rand
Ingersoll Rand is an American multinational company that provides flow creation and industrial products. The company was formed in February 2020 through the spinoff of the industrial segment of Ingersoll-Randplc (now known as Trane Technologies) ...
, and
Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
.
Early years and education
Horner was born in
Summit, New Jersey
Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...
. Raised in
Chatham Borough, New Jersey
Chatham is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, Chatham's population was 8,962,Chatham High School in 1960.Bruce, Edna "Along the Way" ''The Chatham Press'', August 26, 1960. Accessed January 27, 2022, via
Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
. "Constance J. McNeely of 16 N. Hillside Avenue has been awarded one of the 202 freshman competitive scholarships at the University of Pennsylvania. A recent Chatham High School graduate, Miss McNeely will enter the College of Liberal Arts for Women next month."
She graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 1964 and received an M.A. degree in English Literature from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in 1967. She is married to Charles Horner. They have two sons. They live in
Lexington, Virginia
Lexington is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines ...