Laurie Lachance ’83 is leaving her position as CEO of the Maine Development Foundation to become Thomas College’s first female president. The college is in Waterville, Maine.

Prior to the Maine Development Foundation, where she worked for nearly eight years, Lachance was Maine’s state economist for 11 years and Central Maine Power’s economist prior to that, according to the Bangor Daily News.

She wrote in an announcement letter, “Over nearly 3 decades of analyzing economic development, I have grown to understand that the most critically important investment that we can make to ensure economic prosperity is education, and the only way we will attain our vision of “A High Quality of Life for all Maine People” is to help lift every Maine person to their highest potential.”