Uncrowned Community Builders

Mary-Frances Winters is president and founder of The Winters Group, Inc., a Rochester-based consulting firm with a national client roster. The Winters Group specializes in research, strategic planning, training, and public speaking with emphasis in ethnic and multicultural issues.

Prior to founding The Winters Group in 1984, Ms. Winters was affirmative action officer and senior market analyst at Eastman Kodak Company, where she worked for 11 years.

The Niagara Falls, NY, native is a graduate of the University of Rochester with undergraduate degrees in English and Psychology, and a Master's degree in business administration from the William E. Simon Executive Development Program. She received an honorary doctorate from Roberts Wesleyan College in 1997.

Ms. Winters was selected to serve as Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Continuing Education's 1994-95 Distinguished Minett Professor where she taught a leadership course entitled, 21st Century Leader: Visionary, Inspired, and Spiritually Grounded at the graduate level.

Among her other awards and honors, the Rochester Minority Enterprise Development Committee named Ms. Winters "Minority Business Person of the Year" in 1988. She was featured in the 1989 edition of Marquis "Who's Who in American Women," was the 1991 recipient of the Athena Award by the Women's Council of the Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce. In 1992 she was one of five women nationally to receive the Avon Products, Inc., and U.S. Small Business Administration's Women of Enterprise Award. In 1994 she received the Urban League's Outstanding Community Leader Award. Ms. Winters was selected as one of Rochester's torch bearers for the 1996 Olympic torch Relay. Phi Delta Kappa Education Fraternity presented Ms. Winters with its 1996 Research Award.

The Winters Group clients include corporate, government, education, and not-for-profits such as Eastman Kodak, Xerox Corporation, AT&T, IBM, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company, Council on Foundations, United Way, National Center on Education and Economy, Rochester City School District, City of Rochester, and Rochester Institute of Technology.

The Winters Group conducted several research studies for the National Center on Education and the Economy on "What students should know and be able to do" upon high school graduation.

A member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Rochester, Ms. Winters also serves on the board of the Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce, Chase Manhattan Bank of Rochester, and Roberts Wesleyan College. She has previously served on the boards of Rochester Area Foundation; United Way; McQuaid Jesuit High School; Blue Cross/Blue Shield of the Rochester Area; McCurdy and Co., Inc.; and the National Board of Directors for Girl Scouts of the USA, among others. She is also a member of the National Speakers Association.

She is past chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Greater Rochester Women's Fund, and past president of the Girl Scouts of Genesee Valley, Inc., and the Black Business Association of Rochester. Ms. Winters was the 1994 General Campaign Chair for the United Way/Red Cross Campaign.

She is a frequent contributor to the editorial page of the local newspaper on topics of education and diversity. She has been published in the International Personnel Management Association Newsletter and has written monographs on "Philanthropy Among People of Color" for the Council on Foundations in Washington, DC.

Ms. Winters, a widow, has two children, Mareisha, 23, a graduate of Georgia Tech, and Spelman College, and Joe, 25, a graduate of Harvard University, Duke University Divinity School, and currently a PhD. candidate at Duke University's School of Religion.

Ms. Winters, who resides in Fairport, New York, is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, The Links Incorporated, and is an active member of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church.