In 1947, Lanier took a leave of absence from Vassar College and served as the executive director of the Committee on Human Resources of the United States Department of Defense. A year later, in 1948, he became the chairman of the Department of Psychology at New York University. Additionally, he served as Secretary of the Society of Experimental Psychologists from 1948 to 1951.Scientific and Technical Societies of the United States and Canada, Volume 5, 1948, p. 272
