The new head of McNair programs at PNW understands what students are going through. 

She went through the same things.

“I want to do for our students what was done for me and more,” said Latonia Winston, an alumna of the McNair Achievement Program and, since January, PNW’s McNair director. “There are a lot of things I could’ve done with my life … [but] I’m passionate about helping people.”

Born and raised in Milwaukee, she has master’s degrees in Human Resources Management and History and Christian Doctrine. She also has a doctorate in Educational Studies. 

“My parents instilled in me the value of education and discipline along with the confidence of knowing I could achieve any goal with hard work and dedication,” she said.

She believes the McNair programs can help instill those values in students here.

“Students are people and the success of those people is helping them identify their dreams, turning their dreams into a plan, turning that plan into a mission, helping them understand that mission is call, and putting it out there as a workable vision,” Winston said. “It can’t just be something you dream about without knowing how to achieve it.” 

McNair Achievement Programs are funded by federal grants to support and prepare undergraduate students who intend to pursue postgraduate studies and are first-generation or low-income students, or members of under-represented populations. 

The program under TRIO honors the life and accomplishments of Ronald E McNair, the second African American stationed on the space shuttle Challenger Mission in 1978.

Winston said her programs’ work is critical to students.

“I work with colleagues to offer and structure experiences, learning and community because the people you study and connect with today are going to be working beside you five years from now,” she said. “We should develop voracious learning habits that cultivate the mind, strengthen the body, feed the soul, speak to ourselves, our community, and our world.”