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Regina Winters-Toussaint (1969-2016) was an architect and founder of Zared Enterprises, LLC in New Haven, CT and Port Arthur, TX.  She founded the company in 2003 and specialized in sustainable and green design.  She and her work were featured in the New York Times Magazine, New York News Day, the New Haven Register, New Haven Independent and the Real Estate & Construction Review among others. She became a Managing Member of the interdisciplinary real estate development and planning firm, Via Nuova in 2006.

In 2003, Regina was named the Director of Real Estate Development for NeighborWorks-New Horizons, a non-profit organization dedicated to affordable housing. In 2013 Zared Enterprises was tasked with planning a new Dixwell Community House in New Haven. The community center would include a library, museum, kitchen, and gymnasium. Although the final construction was not completed until after Regina’s death, her architectural visions, including the use of African symbols on the building, are appreciated by numerous New Haven, CT residents on a daily basis.

For over two decades she was an administrator, professional consultant, and advocate for programs geared toward neighborhood revitalization, community development, and urban planning.  She served first as Deputy for Administrative Services, administering all state, federal, and municipal funding for affordable housing development for the City of New Haven.  Later she accepted a Mayoral appointment to the position of Executive Director of the City of New Haven’s Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development (the Livable City Initiative) and finally as Interim Executive Director of the New Haven Housing Authority.  During her tenure she wrote grants successfully realizing $17 million in new state and federal funding for city-sponsored housing programs and administered $340 million in public funding for the creation of affordable housing, sustainable communities and for neighborhood revitalization efforts City-wide.

Ms. Winters-Toussaint was the co-founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects and the only African American Women Principal of an Architecture and Planning Firm in the State of Connecticut. She was a member of Connecticut’s State Historic Preservation Review Board and a Trustee of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. Regina understood the importance of mentorship, while teaching City Planning to students at The University of New Haven.

Ms. Winters-Toussaint was a graduate of the George School, an elite Quaker prep high school in Pennsylvania.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and a Master of Architecture Degree from Yale University in 1994. While studying at Yale, Regina spent her summers as a counselor for L.E.A.P (Leadership, Education, Athletics in Partnership), a public housing enrichment program for children residing in public housing. This mentorship would influence Regina’s unique understanding and compassion for residents living in public housing. As an architect and city planner she not only focused on the physical aspect of buildings, but also the quality of life for their residents.

Regina Winters-Toussaint passed away on April 3, 2016 at the age of forty-seven from cancer. Regina’s memory lives on in the countless buildings that she planned and the lives that she influenced through her mentorship and volunteerism

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