John Silvanus Wilson, Jr

In December 2023, after serving as the executive director of AASCU’s Millennium Leadership Initiative, John Silvanus Wilson, Jr. was named the managing director of the Open Leadership Program in collaboration with MIT, and chairman of The Open Leadership Council. This is a return to MIT for him, as he launched his career in 1985 with a 16-year stay at MIT, mostly as a senior fundraising official in two major capital campaigns.

After leaving MIT in 2001, he became a Professor and Executive Dean at the George Washington University. Next, he served in the first term under President Barack Obama as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He then served with distinction as the 11th President of Morehouse College, his Alma Mater.

More recently, after spending a year as President-in-Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he began service in 2018 as Senior Advisor and Strategist to Harvard Presidents Drew G. Faust and Larry S. Bacow. In 2021, as a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Business School, he completed a book entitled, Hope and Healing: Black Colleges and the Future of American Democracy, released by the Harvard Education Press in May 2023.

He has served on several boards, including Spelman College [2006-2009] and Harvard University [2015-2021].

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, and both Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Administration, Planning and Social Policy, also from Harvard University.