Deborah Warren has spent the past thirty years doing, funding, promoting, and studying community-based development, community-based philanthropy, and organizational development across the rural South. She has been executive director of the Southern Rural Development Initiative (SRDI since 1995). Twelve years with the North Carolina legal services programs—as codirector of the community empowerment arm, acting director of the statewide advocacy program, and community economic development specialist for the state—helped to build her knowledge of and commitment to rural places. Ms. Warren is founding director of the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina and helped build the CDC sector in the state. She also worked for MDC Inc. and for the State of North Carolina.

Ms. Warren has served on the boards of Self-Help, the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina, the Community Development Partnership Network, the North Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the North Carolina Low Income Housing Coalition, and the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. She holds a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago (Phi Beta Kappa).