Chris Lance and family establish Chapel Hill roots

Vivian Lance has seen more of the world than most 17-year-olds. She’s lived in 10 different places, hiking in Denali National Park in Alaska, skiing the Rocky Mountains and attending school in Doha, Qatar, as the only American student in her class.

Chris Lance with his daughter Vivian. (Submitted photo)

Vivian’s father, Chris Lance, loves that his eldest daughter has been able to see so much of the world, but there are downsides to all of that traveling, too. After 26 years in the U.S. Air Force, Lance is grateful that Vivian and his whole family are now finally establishing firm roots in one place: Chapel Hill.

Lance became Carolina’s executive director of facilities operations in August. “I’m able to transition into a new stage of my life, and there’s no better place to do it than here at UNC-Chapel Hill,” he said.

Already, the town and University have begun to feel like home to him, his wife, Kori, and their daughters Vivian, Eleanor and Genevieve. As daughter Vivian told him, “Dad, I’ve seen the world. Now, I want to see the same thing for a little while.”

Lance’s new role at Carolina is a familiar one for him. He held leadership roles in facilities services for most of his time in the Air Force and most recently managed a team of 1,300 military and civilian personnel at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.

Lance previously served as director of installation support at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma, Tennessee. He also led large-scale construction programs in the Middle East as director of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command Project Management Office.

The Lance family. (Submitted photo)

As Lance prepared to retire from the Air Force this year, the role at Carolina felt like a natural fit.

“I was entertaining other institutions, but UNC was always my top pick, and this is coming from a guy who’s lived all over the world and all over the country and had no prior ties in North Carolina,” he said. “North Carolina is known for being a phenomenal higher education institution, and people know it everywhere. They know the quality of the education you get when you come to UNC.

“I wanted to be part of something that was the best, and UNC is one of the best universities out there.”

At Carolina, Lance oversees a team of more than 800 employees responsible for the operations, maintenance, cleaning and repairs of 18 million-plus square feet of academic buildings, research facilities and residence halls.

The job doesn’t differ much from past ones he’s held.

“Whether you’re on an Air Force base or whether you’re on a college campus, HVAC systems don’t care what kind of building they’re in,” Lance said, laughing. “The lights and plumbing fixtures don’t care, either.”

Lance said the Carolina community has been welcoming to him, and he’s enjoying living in North Carolina, especially watching the leaves change color this fall. The son of Bob Lance, also an Air Force veteran, Lance was born in Turkey and has lived in 13 cities scattered across the world.

Lance was deployed in Iraq when Vivian was born in 2008.  Now she is applying to colleges in North Carolina — including UNC-Chapel Hill — and younger sisters Eleanor and Genevieve can finally have continuity with their schooling, as well.

“We love the area, love the school, love the people, and we hope to stick around for quite some time,” Lance said. “My family and I really want a place that we can put down roots and call home. Before, if you asked my daughters where they’re from, they would say ‘nowhere.’ Hopefully now they can say, ‘I’m from North Carolina.’”