Janie Bates

Janie Bates is the Executive Director of the Texoma Workforce Development Board dba Workforce Solutions Texoma.  Workforce Solutions administers employment, training and child care services to the residents of Cooke, Grayson and Fannin Counties.

Janie serves as a board member of the Sherman Boys and Girls Club. She was a founding member of the Fannin Literacy Council and has served as chair of the Sherman Chamber of Commerce, Grayson County United Way and the Texas Association of Workforce Boards. Janie is a Distinguished Toastmaster and is also the recipient of the Sherman Chamber Athena Award.

She has also served with the following:

  • Chair of the North Texas Enterprise Project;
  • Mentor with  Big Brothers Big Sisters;
  • President of the Sherman Band Boosters;
  • Secretary of the Texas Association of Workforce Boards;
  • Center for Workplace Learning Advisory Board

Workforce Solutions has won the Texas Workforce Commission’s Service to Community Award for work with the Fannin County Literacy Council and has also been recognized numerous times as the highest performing small workforce board in the state of Texas.  Workforce Solutions has received National awards for exemplary programs and regional planning initiatives.

Janie is a graduate of Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She and her husband, Mike, reside in Sherman. Mike and Janie are the parents of two daughters, Arie Vanderveer of Sherman and Amie Abshire of Frisco and they are the proud grandparents of five.