Warren Whitlock is an internationally recognized thought leader in the development and implementation in strategic management and policy. He joins us today representing Race Forward, where he works with the Federal Strategies team to help center equity as a priority among federal agencies. A native Brooklynite, Warren has a diverse career which spans international development, city, state and federal government, academia and the private sector.
Warren’s experience includes being a Senior Project Manager with the New York City Economic Development Corporation, as well as First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Community Development Agency (now, the Department of Youth & Community Development. In the mid-1990s, he also served as Vice President for Business Development at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His tenure with New York State includes serving as the Deputy Executive Director of the Harlem Community Development Corporation, and the Director of the Office of Civil Rights for the New York State Department of Transportation, where under his leadership, that office was ranked by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as the highest performing state DOT Civil Rights office in the nation.
In 2011, Warren was appointed as a Senior Executive Service member to the position of Associate Administrator of FHWA’s Office of Civil Rights in Washington DC. In that role, he was highly recognized for successfully prosecuting FHWA’s first-ever Title VI case, as well as advancing the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for all public rights of way. From 2016 to 2019, Warren served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Diversity & Leadership at the Pentagon, where he designed and implemented several first-ever programs to advance equity within the Army.
Warren holds a A.B. from Princeton University, and a MSc from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he studied as a Charles H. Revson Fellow. He serves as a Board member of the Morris Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights and an Advisory Board member of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ.