Carolyn Warner has gained national stature as one of America's most articulate educational and public policy leaders. A product of pioneering Oklahoma stock, her father was an Oklahoma State Senator, teacher, and newspaper publisher in whose honor the first public school in Oklahoma's Indian Territory was named. Her mother, also a teacher, served as a school principal in both Oklahoma and California.

With six children in the public schools, Carolyn Warner became an active parent volunteer and PTA member, and she began her public service career with election to the Phoenix Union High School District Board of Trustees. In 1974, following a business career as VP and general manager of a family-owned interior/business design firm, public service became a full-time commitment when she was elected Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the first non-educator ever elected to this post. She was reelected to two additional four-year terms. During her tenure, Warner became nationally known for her advocacy of educational accountability (both academic and fiscal); citizen participation in educational decision making; the integration of career and technical education and basic academic skills; and an unparalleled partnership with school administrators, teachers, and business leaders. Under her leadership, Arizona’s Basic Skills and Employability Skills initiatives became national models and were among the first educational materials to be printed in the Navajo language. 

In 1986, she was her party's nominee for governor. Warner has received a number of Presidential appointments serving under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the White House Conference on Small Business, the National Skill Standards Board, the National Commission on the Public Service and the advisory panel in the financing of elementary and secondary education. 

As a respected public policy leader, Warner maintains an active role in political and educational initiatives and organizations on both the state and national scene. Drawing on her vast experience in government, business, education, and communications, she heads her own firm, Corporate Education Consulting, Inc., which offers consulting, speaking, seminar, and training services focusing on education, workforce/workplace issues, leadership, and public/private partnerships.

Carolyn Warner is nationally known as a speaker of uncommon skills, giving over 30 keynote and seminar presentations per year. Her public speaking expertise is reflected in her bestseller, The Last Word: A Treasury of Women's Quotes. She is also the author of Everybody's House-The Schoolhouse, published by Corwin Press in 1997.

Warner delivers over forty keynote presentations a year, both in the U.S. and abroad,including three European Union conferences on education and skills training related topics.

Warner was a Congressional appointee to the National Skills Standards Board (NSSB) and was a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business. She also serves as national Treasurer of Jobs for America's Graduates, the nation's most successful school-to-work transition program, and is past President of the Arizona Women's Forum.

Warner served for twelve years as Arizona's elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the first non-educator to hold that post. Increased accountability and the formation of business-education partnerships were hallmarks of her administration. Under her leadership, Arizona had the nation's first sequential job skills identification initiative. She was then her party's nominee for Governor, narrowly losing in an historic three-way general election.

In 1998, Warner received an honorary Doctorate from Northern Arizona University in recognition of her service to education and the community. Among her numerous awards are Policy Leader of the Year by the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Racial Justice Award from the YWCA of the USA, and the Carl Perkins Humanitarian Award from the Association for Career and Technical Education. She is the author of four books, including the best-selling The Last Word, A Treasury of Women's Quotes.