The Morehouse Board of Trustees recently announced its unanimous decision to appoint John Silvanus Wilson Jr. as the 11th president of the historic black college.
A 1979 graduate of Morehouse, Wilson has more than 25 years of leadership in higher education and a strong record in institutional fund raising. Wilson also has extensive expertise in advancing the interests of black colleges through his work as executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Wilson spent the first 16 years of his career at MIT, ultimately becoming the director of foundation relations and assistant provost. While working at MIT, he served as a teaching fellow in Harvard University’s Afro-American studies.
For 10 years, Wilson served as the president of the Greater Boston Morehouse College Alumni Association.
He recently 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.
Wilson received 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. Wilson officially assumes the role of president at the end of January 2013.
