Posted on January 5, 2026
Janice Lansing heard the magic words while walking on a sand berm off Louisiana’s coast.
It was in 2010, not long after the massive BP oil spill, the reason the sand berm had been constructed. She had recently been hired as chief financial officer of Louisiana’s nascent coastal agency and was on a visit to the site along with other state officials.
R. King Milling, the longtime chair of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation, made clear what he believed was needed once he found out Lansing had taken on the job overseeing the agency’s spending.
“We need audits,” she recalled Milling bluntly saying.
“I said, ‘Yes sir, we can do that,’” she said. “Little did Mr. Milling know, he was speaking my language.”
Fifteen years and many projects later, Lansing is being honored for her behind-the-scenes work keeping a close eye on spending at the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. She was recently named the recipient of this year’s R. King Milling Distinguished Coastal Service Award, selected by the chair of the agency’s board from a list of nominees.
Lansing played a pivotal role in the agency’s early years, when CPRA took shape in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, helping set out a mission that was “designed to be different.” She said that meant it would “move quickly, move nimbly, but always be transparent and demonstrate good fiduciary responsibility over those dollars.”
That was why she was glad to hear those words from Milling, the former Whitney National Bank executive who had become an early champion of coastal restoration. She agreed that ensuring the new agency’s accountability and effectiveness in addressing the state’s land loss crisis was paramount.
And the brand new agency had “to demonstrate to folks that we were going to manage our money well,” she said of Milling’s words that day.
‘Getting the plane built’
Lansing’s role at the CPRA was not one that put her in the spotlight. She was not designing marsh restoration projects or involved in constructing them. But her role was equally, if not more, important.
The same BP spill that put her on that sand berm was also responsible for sending billions of dollars in fines and settlement money to Louisiana for coastal projects. Keeping tabs on that spending — along with the full slate of other accounting, budgeting and contracting — fell under her purview.
Greg Grandy, the CPRA’s coastal resources administrator, remembered the early days of establishing the agency, “when we were building the plane while flying it.” He left his work with the state in 2009, but returned in 2019.
“From a business and leadership standpoint, Janice was responsible for getting the plane built that we fly today,” he said.
CPRA Chairman Gordon Dove said, “She’s the kind of leader who quietly makes things work better for everyone.”
While the CPRA may not be a household name for many Louisianans, it’s difficult to argue against its importance. The state loses around a football field of land every 100 minutes on average, wiping out wetlands the size of Delaware over the last century.
Its annual spending plan has amounted to more than a billion dollars in recent years and includes everything from levee construction to marsh building and ecosystem restoration. It also has a 50-year master plan aimed at salvaging as much of Louisiana’s coast as possible.
Beyond BP funds, the state also receives federal money for coastal projects. State coastal leaders have stressed the importance of showing that the money is being spent wisely to ensure it continues to flow.
‘Very humbled by that’
That is a vision shared by Lansing, a Denham Springs native and mother of two who retired in September but continues to work part-time as an executive adviser at CPRA.
With a master’s degree in public administration from LSU, she began her career as a fiscal analyst for the Legislative Fiscal Office. She later was undersecretary at the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, and at the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
While still in school, employed as a student worker at Wildlife and Fisheries, she would go to the Capitol every day to pick up copies of bills — at a time when they were not yet available on the internet. She was interested in how government worked and began to realize that would be her career.
“I remember standing at the gold elevators in the State Capitol one day, and I said, ‘This is where I will work,’” she said. “And I did. I love the public policy aspect of it. I love solving problems. I love getting things done.”
She said she was “shocked” when she found out she was receiving the award, and stressed she was part of a larger team that put the agency on track and kept it there.
“I’m still feeling very humbled by that,” Lansing, 57, said of the award. “Because it was totally a team effort to build this agency.”
