Life
Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr., named President of Morehouse College
“Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Wilson has demonstrated his commitment to supporting the critical role HBCUs serve within our national educational landscape,” said Robert M. Franklin, 10th president of Morehouse. “Our institution and our students will be very well served by Dr. Wilson’s experience, focus and passion.”
“I am honored to be chosen to lead this hallowed institution and my alma mater,” said Wilson. “Dr. Franklin’s efforts to raise the international profile of the College and advance our mission through his ‘Morehouse Renaissance’ are just a few among the many significant accomplishments by which he will be remembered. I thank the Board for its confidence in my leadership and look forward to working with faculty, students and staff, and continuing our proud tradition of producing global leaders.”
Before working with the White House Initiative, Wilson was an associate professor of higher education in the Graduate School of Education at George Washington University (GWU). He also served as the executive dean of GWU’s Virginia campus, and he helped to develop a strategic plan for the university. While at GWU, the focus of his research and teaching included advancement and finance in higher education and the role of black colleges and universities.
Wilson spent the first 16 years of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), ultimately becoming the director of foundation relations and assistant provost, where he more than doubled the productivity of the office he managed and reached a record annual revenue stream of more than US$50 million.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Morehouse and graduate degrees from Harvard University, including his master of theology and both a master’s and a doctoral degree in administration, planning and social policy. While working at MIT, he served as a teaching fellow in Harvard University’s Afro-American Studies Department in its Graduate School of Education.
For 10 years, Wilson served as the president of the Greater Boston Morehouse College Alumni Association. In that role, he led an effort to raise more than half a million dollars toward scholarships and another half million dollars toward community outreach for his alumni chapter. In 1998, Morehouse awarded him the Benjamin Elijah Mays (Bennie) Award in Leadership.
Wilson recently has served as a consultant to the United Negro College Fund Institute for Capacity Building’s HBCU Institutional Advancement Program and on the Kresge Foundation’s Black College Advisory Board. From 1996 through 2000, he served as chairman of the Alumni Council of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has served on the boards of both the Samaritans and the Andover Newton Theological School.
He is married to Dr. Carol Espy-Wilson, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. They have twin daughters and a son.
