As vice president and senior business consultant focused on underserved entrepreneurs at JPMorgan Chase, Rashida Winfrey is charged with supporting the company’s commitment to advancing racial equity through small business resiliency and growth. Previously, Winfrey served as chief service officer and director of partnerships at the Atlanta mayor’s office, where she led work to deepen constituent engagement, implement innovative solutions for community challenges, and establish the first City of Atlanta Corporate Partnership Office. She directly supported the city’s economic development agency, Invest Atlanta, in the distribution of $22 million of Covid-19 small business grants and launched the innovative Technical Assistance program providing business support beyond funding.
But for Winfrey, bridging the financial gap for communities in Atlanta has a personal meaning. “I had the benefit of growing up in an upper-middle-class family in the Cascade Heights neighborhood, but I was bused to high school in Buckhead every day,” she says. “I saw the poverty and struggles of my friends, who did not have the same support to ‘make it’ in their careers.”
Winfrey knew she was fortunate to have her upbringing and felt compelled to leverage her advantages to assist the communities around her. She strives to create programs and initiatives that offer hands-on financial literacy and coaching to small businesses and youth so they have more entrepreneurship opportunities and exposure to broader career paths in the banking space. Winfrey has served on numerous boards and initiatives geared toward economic empowerment and education, including WorkSource Atlanta and Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive (PAACT).
She’s passionate about how her legacy will help shape the city. “I grew up in a tight-knit African American community in Southwest Atlanta where we were taught that your neighbors are an extension of your family, and that we needed to fight for positive change to rise together,” she says. “That is why I unapologetically support underserved and minority communities in my city.”