John Silvanus Wilson, Jr.

In September 2025, John Silvanus Wilson, Jr. was appointed as Executive Director of the McGraw Center for Educational Leadership, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. His 40-year career in higher education includes serving as a senior advancement director at MIT, an Associate Professor and an Executive Dean at the George Washington University, executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, and as the 11th president of Morehouse College.

In 2017, after leading Morehouse for nearly five years, he spent a year as President-in-Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Beginning in 2018, he served as senior advisor and strategist to Harvard President Drew G. Faust, and then for 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 written many articles, won many awards and honors, and has served on several boards, including Spelman College [2006-2009] and Harvard University [2015-2021]. He now serves as board vice chair of the Citizen Service, board chair at Campus, and a board member at Liberation Ventures.  

After completing his undergraduate studies at Morehouse College, he received 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.