Following a military career in national security, Lonnie Garris III, ’93, launches Cool Amps, a green-technology startup.
LONNIE GARRIS III’S EDUCATION AT SOUTHERN started long before he matriculated as a student. He frequented the campus as a child with his mother, the late Delores Garris. She was a librarian at the university in the ’70s and ’80s, and sometimes took him with her to work during his summer vacations. His father — Lonnie Garris Jr., 6th Yr. ’83 — held a doctorate in education and worked in the New Haven Public Schools system as a teacher and principal for 40 years. So, it’s not surprising that the family values education or that Garris ended up at Southern as an undergraduate.
He was also a “crosstown cadet,” enrolled in the ROTC program at the University of Connecticut, along with all ROTC students from around the state. His mentor there, an intelligence officer, helped him charter his course of study at Southern. He told Garris if he wanted to be an intelligence officer, he should major in political science, advice Garris followed that resulted in a bachelor’s degree and a 24-year career in the U.S. Air Force.
Now he’s working in the private sector as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Cool Amps Energy Solutions, a New Haven-based, hard-tech startup developing an environmentally friendly process for recycling lithium batteries.