CHRISS WINSTON

   

Chriss Winston has spent thirty years working in the political arena as she puts it “because I’m a political junkie and because I wanted to change America.”  She was the first woman to head the White House Office of Speech Writing for President George H.W. Bush and was Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications.   Chriss is a longtime political communications professional in Washington, D.C., who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for President Reagan and later as a senior official for the United States Information Agency.   

            After stints on Capitol Hill and a number of political campaigns, she became Deputy Director of Communications for Bush-Quayle ’88, juggling a four-month-old and a national presidential campaign.  She then took charge of speech writing, media relations and public affairs in the White House.  She says her fondest memories are those traveling with President Bush to Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall fell.

            “Seeing 100,000 people filling the streets to cheer an American president and their freedom for the first time is something no one ever forgets,” she says.  “It reminded me how precious our democracy really is.” 

           Chriss spent two-and-a-half years in the White House, leaving to start her own communications and writing business.  She has penned speeches for CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, major politicians and even Hollywood celebrities.  Chriss also joined the White House Writers Group, one of Washington top communications firms, as a Director and continues today.

           In recent years, she has also authored a number of books including, among others, the bestselling “What Color is a Conservative?” with former Congressman J.C. Watts, Jr., and the story of Nancy Brinker and the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, “Winning the Race.”  As her latest book, written with Myrna Blyth, “How to Raise an American” is released, she is currently a Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics in Boston where she is teaching and working on a new book.

            She calls Pomfret, Maryland home and lives with her husband, pollster David Winston, head of The Winston Group; her son, Ian, now a college freshman; and a small menagerie.