The Life and Legacy of Rev. Dr. Ronald Winters

Dr. Janice Lewis Winters is a native of Alexandria, Virginia, where she became a baptized believer of Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior at age eight at Oakland Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, under the pastorate of the late Reverend Luther H. Mills. She graduated from Parker-Gray High School in Alexandria, Virginia, as valedictorian in June 1956. She received a bachelor of science degree in elementary education (with distinction) from Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia, in May 1960 and was selected as Miss Virginia State (1959–1960). She pursued graduate studies in speech pathology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (1962–1965), and special education at the University of Virginia Northern Virginia Extension (1970–1972). She completed the requirements for the master of education degree in May 1973 and the PhD in education degree in May 2000 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The Southern Regional Education Board selected Dr. Winters as a Dissertation Year Fellowship Recipient for 1999–2000.

Dr. Winters’s teaching career spans over four decades and has included teaching at the elementary school level as well as the college level. She taught regular education students in Arlington, Virginia, and students with learning disabilities in the Fairfax County Public Schools for thirty-two years. In 1994, she retired from public schoolteaching and became employed part-time as an adjunct instructor and university supervisor of student interns at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. During the fall 2000 and summer 2001 semesters, she was a guest lecturer and adjunct instructor at the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Department of Teacher Preparation and Special Education in Washington, DC. From the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2004, Dr. Winters was an assistant professor at George Mason University in the Graduate School of Education in the field of special education. She retired from George Mason University in 2004 after ten years of successful teaching at the college level.

Dr. Winters is active in numerous religious and community service organizations. She is a member of Resurrection Baptist Church in Reston, Virginia, where her late husband, Rev. Dr. Ronald Winters, was the organizer and pastor emeritus. She served at Resurrection Baptist Church as a deaconess and director of Christian education for twenty years. Dr. Winters has been an active member of the Northern Virginia Baptist Association since her childhood and throughout adulthood. She was elected as the first coordinator for the Young People’s Department of the Northern Virginia Baptist Association and was instrumental in revising the Young People’s Department bylaws in 1978. She is a LIFE Member of the Women’s Ministry of the Northern Virginia Baptist Association. She has served for a number of years as an instructor, assistant dean, and commission on education cochair for the Northern Virginia Baptist Association. In 2017, Dr. Winters was certified as a dean by the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. In August 2019, she was elected as the dean and chair of the Commission on Education of the Northern Virginia Baptist Association, Inc. In addition to teaching courses for the Northern Virginia Baptist Association, she has been an instructor for the Baptist General Convention of Virginia and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

Dr. Winters is the past president of the Ministers’ Wives and Ministers’ Widows Fellowship of Northern Virginia and Vicinity (served 2009–2013) and the past dean of education for the Virginia Association of Ministers’ Wwes and Ministers’ Widows (served 2012–2016). Further, she has previously served as the District 2 Missionary Chairperson for Area D of the Baptist General Convention of Virginia, Division of Women. Dr. Winters is a charter member of the Lambda Kappa Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Dulles Section of the National Council of Negro Women. She is a subscribing Silver Life Member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Further, Dr. Winters served four years (1998 to 2001) as the Fairfax Representative and At-Large Member of the Northern Virginia Community College Board and two years as the At-large Member of the Board of Directors of the George Mason University Alumni Association. In May 2008, Dr. Winters received the “Making a Difference Award” from Phi Delta Kappa International for organizing an Academic Support and Achievement Program (ASAP) at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA. In May 2009, Dr. Winters received the Fairfax Education Association Human and Civil Rights Award and was recognized in the Congressional Record for her work with the Academic Support and Achievement Program, whose goals included improving student achievement through tutoring, mentoring, and parental involvement

Dr. Winters was married to the late Reverend Dr. Ronald Winters for fifty-four years. They have two adult children, Ronald Winters Jr. and Christy Winters Scott, and they have four grandchildren: Sierra Raquel Winters, daughter of their son Ronald Winters Jr.; and Jerome Andrew Scott Jr.; Brianna Elizabeth Scott; and Jordan Alexander Scott (children of their daughter, Christy and her husband, Jerome Andrew Scott Sr.).