Wealth of past experiences helps Warner lead the way at UWRI

STEADFAST EFFORT: Despite serving in a number of different roles throughout his career, Larry Warner, chief impact and equity officer at United Way of Rhode Island, has always worked to better his community. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
STEADFAST EFFORT: Despite serving in a number of different roles throughout his career, Larry Warner, chief impact and equity officer at United Way of Rhode Island, has always worked to better his community. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

2022 C-Suite Awards: Nonprofit/Social Service Agency | Larry Warner, United Way of Rhode Island chief impact and equity officer


Larry Warner is a thoughtful strategist, a multitasker accustomed to hard work.

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The chief impact and equity officer of United Way of Rhode Island in Providence is unafraid of deep dives, whether it’s in his work or seeking knowledge he needs to accomplish that work effectively.

“My success as a leader would not be possible without the great team here, from the most junior to my peers and our CEO,” Warner said. “There is a great team spirit here and I am thankful for that and the impact we have together.”

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In addition to juggling his leadership responsibilities at United Way, Warner is a doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he is studying health equity and social justice. Warner also serves as a teaching assistant there.

Warner, a Cranston resident, has two degrees from Brown University: a bachelor’s degree in health and society and a master’s degree in public health. While working on his master’s in 2013, he participated in the ALANA program, where he mentored first-year students of color.

Warner has gone about building his career and helping the greater community in a strategic, multilayered fashion.

During the time he was in the master’s program, Warner served with the Providence Fire Department as a firefighter/emergency medical technician for about 15 years. Firehouse camaraderie and strong bonds with fellow firefighters enabled him to switch shifts when needed to accommodate projects or other schoolwork and complete the program while working.

Though firefighters help people in one way, Warner began to explore avenues by which he could help the community in broader, more systematic ways.

His work has spanned health, safety and education.

Before joining the fire department, Warner worked for the American Red Cross as its director of emergency services and disaster specialist for the New England region from 1997 to 2001. He has also held roles with Safer Institute Inc. and the Rhode Island Foundation and has taught at Brown University and the University of Rhode ­Island.

From 2016 to 2019, Warner was vice chair of the Rhode Island State Innovation Model Test Grant, a $20 million initiative to assess how health care in the state is delivered, integrated and financed, serving as chair of the sustainability workgroup.

Bonnie Clarke, United Way’s program officer of housing initiatives, describes Warner as “a keen observer with the innate ability to look deeply at a situation, digest facts and perceive new patterns and details.”

“Perhaps it is this which allows him to see the things that fall between the cracks, that may otherwise have gone unnoticed,” she said.

In 2019, Warner came to the United Way as its director of grants and strategic initiatives and was promoted to his current role last year. Before coming to United Way, he served as strategic initiative officer for the Rhode Island Foundation’s Healthy Lives initiative.

Warner says work within the nonprofit sector is a mission-driven business.

“We’re focused on economic stability and health. If we focus on supporting [youths] with educational and health outcomes, it positions them for success and addresses social challenges,” he said. “Recognition of this upstream – getting at the root causes of health outcomes – means there are savings to be realized to not have to have things like special education and incarcerations. It’s a wise investment to have policy in place for a healthy community as an option, instead of paying for it downstream.”

Each degree and position Warner has embarked upon has been an investment upstream in not only his own career but also into issues needing improvement in the Ocean State such as housing affordability, health care access, racial equity and food insecurity.

“Larry truly embodies what it means to be a leader, what it means to live in and embody a culture which he has worked so diligently to create,” Clarke said.

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