Mareisha N. Winters Reese

As President and Chief Operating Officer of The Winters Group, Inc., Mareisha N. Reese’s primary responsibilities include managing the day-to-day operations of the organization, including leading and overseeing all aspects of the business, such as human resources, IT, finance, operations, client success, and corporate social justice. Mareisha joined The Winters Group in 2012 as Vice President to help develop new products, bring in new business, service clients, manage social media, and research and consult. She now co-owns the business. 

Prior to joining The Winters Group, Mareisha worked as a software engineer for a large defense contractor. Her experiences of often being the only Black woman in her workspaces, and the biases and microaggressions that came along with that, led to her passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice work. She took that passion to Johnson C. Smith University in 2010 where she served as program manager for a National Science Foundation grant-funded program with the goal to recruit, retain, and graduate underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Mareisha earned a bachelor of science in computer science from Spelman College, a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech, and dual master’s degrees in business administration and information systems from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. She has received several recognitions, including Who’s Who in Black Charlotte, Charlotte Business Journal’s Power 100 and Profiles in Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching, all in 2023. Mareisha was also named to Diversity MBA’s Top 100 Under 50 Executive and Emerging Leaders in 2021 and Diversity Woman Media’s The Power 100 List in 2021. Mareisha is co-author of Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2023) and the second edition of We Can’t Talk About That at Work: How to Talk About Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2024).