JANET A. LAMOTTE

Janet A LaMotte, MHR, is a retired management consultant and administrator with 25 years of expertise in government and military logistics. As a high school senior, Ms. LaMotte was inspired to enter civil service by the example of her father, who spent his entire career as a public-sector employee, and by a speech given by President John F. Kennedy emphasizing the opportunities available in government service. She began as a clerk-typist for the United States Army, spending two years stationed in Washington, D.C., Dallas, Texas, and Fort Belvoir, before joining the IRS in 1962 as a secretary. Ms. LaMotte continued to build her administrative skills through the 1960s, working as a personnel assistant for the Texas State Board of Control from 1964 until 1965, when she accepted a procurement clerk position with the Federal Aviation Administration based out of Oklahoma City.

After a brief stint with the Defense Logistics Agency in the late 1970s, Ms. LaMotte started what would become a career-defining period working at Tinker Air Force Base. Starting in 1979 as a clerk-typist, she quickly rose to become an accounting clerk and secretary before moving into a supply specialist role in 1982. With the help of a Federally Employed Women scholarship and scholarship funds from the Tinker Management Association, Ms. LaMotte continued her education, earning an Associate of Arts from Rose State College in 1982 and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Central Oklahoma. In 1986, she completed a Master of Arts in human relations at the University of Oklahoma, and she was promoted to worldwide inventory management specialist at Tinker Air Force Base the following year, a role she continued to hold until her retirement in 1998.

Throughout her career, Ms. LaMotte has been active in the Air Force Association, serving terms as vice president and executive secretary of the Oklahoma state chapter and earning accolades including a Medal of Merit and an Exceptional Service Award for her contributions. She has contributed articles and photographs to local magazines, newspapers, and newsletters including Air Force Magazine and the Toastmasters International Newsletter, among others. She is highly involved in community life, volunteering with animal rights charities, military and regional history trusts, and advocating for local policy initiatives, notably traffic safety and zoning laws. A longtime member and former president of the Toastmasters and several local genealogical societies, Ms. LaMotte has primarily dedicated herself to genealogical studies in her retirement and works with ancestry.com and findagrave.com in addition to creating family trees.