Full Name
Mareisha N. Winters Reese
Job Title
Workplace Culture Expert & Strategist, Bestselling Author, Founder & CEO
Company
The Winters Group, Inc.
Speaker Bio
Mareisha N. Winters Reese (she/her/hers) is a Xennial (cusp of Millennial and Generation X) Black woman who serves as president and chief operating officer at The Winters Group. In this role, Mareisha manages the day-to-day operations of the organization. She joined the company in 2012 as vice president to help develop new products, bring in new business, service clients, manage social media, and research and consult.
Prior to joining The Winters Group, Mareisha worked as a software engineer for a large defense contractor. The experience of often being the only Black woman in her workspaces, and the biases and microaggressions that came along with that, fueled her passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice work. She took that passion to her role as program manager for HBCU-UP at Johnson C. Smith University, a National Science Foundation grant–funded program 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’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. She is currently pursuing her PhD in organizational development and change at Fielding Graduate University.
In 2021, Mareisha was named one of Diversity MBA’s Top 100 Under 50 Executive and Emerging Leaders and to Diversity Woman Media’s The Power 100 List. In 2023, she was recognized with a Women Worth Watching in Leadership Award from Profiles in Diversity Journal and was named one of the Charlotte Business Journal’s Power 100 for DEI. She was also included on the 2025 Top 25 Restorative People Leaders Watchlist.
Mareisha is coauthor of Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit, We Can’t Talk About That at Work!: How to Talk About Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics and Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change.
Prior to joining The Winters Group, Mareisha worked as a software engineer for a large defense contractor. The experience of often being the only Black woman in her workspaces, and the biases and microaggressions that came along with that, fueled her passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice work. She took that passion to her role as program manager for HBCU-UP at Johnson C. Smith University, a National Science Foundation grant–funded program 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’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. She is currently pursuing her PhD in organizational development and change at Fielding Graduate University.
In 2021, Mareisha was named one of Diversity MBA’s Top 100 Under 50 Executive and Emerging Leaders and to Diversity Woman Media’s The Power 100 List. In 2023, she was recognized with a Women Worth Watching in Leadership Award from Profiles in Diversity Journal and was named one of the Charlotte Business Journal’s Power 100 for DEI. She was also included on the 2025 Top 25 Restorative People Leaders Watchlist.
Mareisha is coauthor of Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit, We Can’t Talk About That at Work!: How to Talk About Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics and Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change.
