{{Short description|American businesswoman}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Constance Horner |image = Contance-Horner.jpg |caption = Horner in 1985 |office = Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office |president = George H. W. Bush |term_start = 1991 |term_end = 1993 |predecessor = Chase Untermeyer |successor = Bruce Lindsey |office1 = United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services |president1 = George H. W. Bush |term_start1 = 1989 |term_end1 = 1991 |predecessor1 = Don M. Newman |successor1 = Kevin Moley |office2 = Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management |president2 = Ronald Reagan<br>George H. W. Bush |term_start2 = August 22, 1985 |term_end2 = May 10, 1989 |predecessor2 = Loretta Cornelius (acting) |successor2 = Constance Newman |birth_name = Constance Joan McNeely |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1942|2|24}} |birth_place = Summit, New Jersey, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = |party = Democratic (before 1970s)<br>Republican (1970s–present) |spouse = Charles Horner |education = University of Pennsylvania (BA)<br>University of Chicago (MA) }} '''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 as well as President Reagan's chief advisor on Federal civil service personnel matters.<ref name="OPM">{{cite web | title=Constance Horner | website=U.S. Office of Personnel Management | date=2019-11-04 | url=https://www.opm.gov/about-us/our-mission-role-history/agency-leadership/constance-horner/ | access-date=2021-05-19}}</ref> She was a presidential appointee in the Administrations of President Reagan and President George H. W. Bush.<ref name="Center">{{cite web | title=Constance J. Horner | website=Center for Women in Law » 2013 Women’s Power Summit on Law & Leadership™ | url=https://law.utexas.edu/cwil/2013-womens-power-summit/2013-speakers/constance-j-horner/ | access-date=2021-05-19}}</ref><ref name="Ogrysko 2019">{{cite web | last=Ogrysko | first=Nicole | title=OPM employees voiceless as administration ramped up merger efforts | website=Federal News Network | date=2019-10-02 | url=https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2019/10/opm-employees-voiceless-as-administration-ramped-up-merger-efforts/ | access-date=2021-05-19}}</ref>
Horner worked for OPM from August 22, 1985 through May 10, 1989.<ref name="OPM" /> During her time in the Reagan administration she also served as Associate Director for Economics and Government in the Office of Management and Budget.<ref name="CMU">{{cite web |title=. Constance Horner WASHINGTON. D.C. 2O41S Director U. S. Office of Personnel Management |url=http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=696361 |website=Digital Collections |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University Libraries |access-date=19 May 2021}}</ref> She approved the budget and legislative proposals of many of Federal agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, Justice, Transportation, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development.<ref name="CMU" /> She was the Director of VISTA as well as Acting Associate Director of ACTION, VISTA's parent agency.<ref name="CMU" />
She later served in the Bush administration where he appointed her deputy secretary of health and human services 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."<ref name="Brookings">{{cite web | title=Constance Horner | website=Brookings | url=https://www.brookings.edu/author/constance-horner/ | access-date=2021-05-19}}</ref><ref name="Center" /> During her nomination hearing for the position at Health and Human Services, Senator David Durenberger said of Horner "[I]f 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."<ref name="Nomination">{{cite book | title=Nomination of Constance J. Horner and Mary Sheila Gall: Hearing Before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, One Hundred First Congress, First Session, on the Nomination of Constance J. Horner to be Under Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Mary Sheila Gall to be Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, April 21, 1989 | publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office | series=S. hrg | year=1989 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9qYFQiNHUIC&pg=PA1 | access-date=2021-05-19 | page=1}}</ref>
After she left the White House Horner was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, writing and lecturing on public organization management reforms.<ref name="Brookings" /> She is a lecturer and writer on the subject of managing the Federal Government.<ref name="CMU" /> Her writing on public policy has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The American Spectator.<ref name="OPM" /> As of 2013 she served on the boards of directors of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Ingersoll-Rand, and Pfizer.<ref name="Center" />
==Early years and education== Horner was born in Summit, New Jersey.<ref name="Pres91">{{cite web | title=Appointment of Constance Horner as Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel | website=The American Presidency Project | date=1991-09-04 | url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/appointment-constance-horner-assistant-the-president-and-director-presidential-personnel | access-date=2021-05-19}}</ref> Raised in Chatham Borough, New Jersey, she graduated from Chatham High School in 1960.<ref name=Nomination/><ref>Bruce, Edna. [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/95292984/ "Along the Way"], ''The Chatham Press'', August 26, 1960. Accessed January 27, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "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."</ref>
She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964 and received an M.A. degree in English Literature from the University of Chicago in 1967.<ref name="OPM" /><ref name="George Bush Library and Museum 1989">{{cite web | title=Public Papers | website=George Bush Library and Museum | date=1989-02-28 | url=https://bush41library.tamu.edu/archives/public-papers/96 | access-date=2021-05-19}}</ref> She is married to Charles Horner.<ref name="OPM" /> They have two sons.<ref name="OPM" /> They live in Lexington, Virginia.<ref name="Center" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{C-SPAN|1024}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Horner, Constance}} Category:1942 births Category:20th-century American women Category:Brookings Institution people Category:Chatham High School (New Jersey) alumni Category:Directors of the United States Office of Personnel Management Category:George H. W. Bush administration personnel Category:Living people Category:People from Chatham Borough, New Jersey Category:People from Lexington, Virginia Category:Politicians from Summit, New Jersey Category:Reagan administration personnel Category:United States deputy secretaries of health and human services Category:United States Office of Management and Budget officials Category:Volunteers in Service to America administrators