(August 2, 1930 – October 9, 2018)

Co-Founder and Chairman -- Corporate//Education Consulting, Inc.

Carolyn Warner was co-founder and Chairman of Corporate// Education Consulting, Inc. (C//ECI), a national-scope consulting firm based in Phoenix, Arizona. She had been active for more than three decades on state and national levels as a respected and effective educational advocate and public policy leader. An acclaimed speaker and best-selling author, Warner led U.S. delegations to Japan, Australia, Germany, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain and China, and conducted on-site studies of European Union vocational and technical training programs. 

Warner served for twelve years as Arizona’s elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the first non-educator to hold that post. In this position, she was a member and executive officer of the State Board of Education/Career and Technical Education, and served on the Arizona Board of Regents and the State Community College Board. Hallmarks of Warner’s tenure were increased services to schools, greater accountability, greater involvement of business and the community in education policy, ground-breaking Basic Skills and Employability Skills initiatives, and the creation of the Arizona Educational Foundation. In 1986, she was her party’s nominee for Governor of Arizona. 

Proving that there is “life after politics,” Warner received Congressional and Presidential appointments to the National Skill Standards Board and the White House Conference on Small Business, and was a Presidential appointee to the National Commission on the Public Service. She served on a variety of Boards of Directors, including Arizona Business and Education Council, Global Pathways, served as the National Treasurer of Jobs for America’s Graduates – the nation’s most successful school-to-work transition program, and Children’s Action Alliance. She actively served as Co-Chair of the Arizona Career and Technical Education Quality Skills Commission until she passed away in October of 2018 and was past Chair of the United Methodist Foundation for Higher Education and past President of the Arizona Women’s Forum.

Warner was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Racial Justice Award - YWCA of the USA; Policy Leader of the Year – National Association of State Boards of Education; Carl Perkins Humanitarian Award – American Association for Career and Technical Education; Distinguished Service Award – National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Carolyn Warner was the author of four books, Promoting Your School: Going Beyond PR; Everybody’s House – the School House; The Words of Extraordinary Women; and best-seller, The Last Word: a Treasury of Women’s Quotations, and a book about her life was written by Lisa Schnebly-Heidinger: Before I Forget: Carolyn Warner.