Warren Edwards

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Warren Edwards is a Senior Fellow at the Community and Regional Research Institute (CARRI) with offices in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Washington, DC. The mission of CARRI is to help develop and then share critical paths that any community or region may take to strengthen its ability to prepare for, respond to, and rapidly recover from significant man-made or natural disasters with minimal downtime of basic community, government, and business services. CARRI believes that a resilient America must be anchored in resilient American communities. CARRI combines community engagement activities with practical research activities. CARRI’s expertise is based on knowledge and evidence. CARRI’s work has been incorporated into the web-enabled Community Resilience System and the Campus Resilience Enhancement System.

The Community and Regional Resilience Institute began as a research project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory where Mr. Edwards was the Director of the Southeast Region Research Initiative, a research collaboration of five federal laboratories and numerous research universities throughout the southeast U.S. Mr. Edwards transitioned CARRI from ORNL to Meridian Institute (www.Merid.org) in 2011 and was its Executive Director until May 2016.

After retiring as a Major General from the United States Army and before joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Mr. Edwards served as the Chief Operating Officer for Oak Ridge Technology Connections (TechConnect), LLC. In that position he established the start-up business plan, the operating systems, policies, and business procedures for a high-technology consulting enterprise and brought them to full operating capability. Prior to TechConnect, Mr. Edwards was a Senior Director for CACI, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia. In that capacity, he established the Atlanta operations office for CACI and managed a series of programs throughout the Southeast supporting the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.

During his more than 30 years of military service, Mr. Edwards held numerous positions culminating as the Deputy Commanding General, Coalition Land Component Command/3rd US Army, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). Mr. Edwards graduated from the University of Richmond, Richmond Virginia and holds a Masters of Military Arts and Sciences from the US Army Command and Staff College and a Masters of Science in International Studies from the US Naval War College.

Mr. Edwards and his wife, Diane, currently reside in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.