Laura Lee Langley

Cape Breton University is delighted to honour and recognize a talented and dedicated public servant who has spent her career promoting and buiding Nova Scotia’s reputation, across the country and around the world, Mrs. Laura Lee Langley.

Ms. Langley has a wealth of experience in public sector management. Before joining ACOA on July 2, 2024, as President, she served for 27 years in the Nova Scotia Public Service, most of that time in the senior ranks. Since 2016 she served as Deputy Minister of the Office of the Nova Scotia Premier, Deputy Minister of Treasury Board, Clerk of the Executive Council, NS Public Service Commissioner, Head of the Nova Scotia Public Service, and the CEO of Communications Nova Scotia, concurrently. Prior to this, she led various other departments in a Deputy or Associate Deputy Minister role.

She has demonstrated success in engaging employees while working in complex systems, tackling complex problems, and driving a whole-of-government, citizen-centered approach to developing public policy. She is interested in transforming how we work in Westminster’s model of government while advancing the modernization of public service.

Ms. Langley is a sought-after speaker on leadership, workplace communication and leading in complex systems, and is a certified facilitator in understanding and seeing organizational systems. She has a Master of Public Administration from Dalhousie University (2002) and a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University (2015). She joined the Nova Scotia public service after more than 15 years as a journalist, working for both CTV and Global News.

Ms. Langley has served as a board member for various professional and community organizations and is a known advocate for diversity and inclusion. She has been recognized by the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission as a Champion of the Workplace, in 2018 she was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women as a strategic and engaging public-sector leader. In 2024, she received the Public Policy Forum’s Frank McKenna Award for her leadership in public service and the King Charles III Coronation Medal. In 2025, she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

Ms. Langley is from Sydney and currently lives in Oakfield, Nova Scotia with her family.

Today, Cape Breton University confers the degree Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, on a trailblazer for women in leadership and a deep-rooted, life-long commitment to all Nova Scotians, Mrs. Laura Lee Langley.