John S. Wilson Jr. is a Board Member of the Council on Higher Education of RIDGE-LANE LP.

Dr. Wilson, Jr. currently serves as Senior Advisor and Strategist to the President at Harvard University.  He assumed that role after serving as President in Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he conducted research about the future of American higher education.

He served as President of Morehouse College, where he led strategic initiatives that increased applications, stabilized and expanded enrollment, and elevated the graduation rate. His new embrace of students helped to shape their fourth Rhodes Scholar, and his creative work with Silicon Valley led Forbes Magazine to name Morehouse as the 5th Most Entrepreneurial College.

Dr. Wilson served as the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on HBCU’s, where he led work with 105 HBCU’s, the White House, 32 federal agencies, including private sector and philanthropy.

He was an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education at the George Washington University.  He started his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he served for 16 years, ultimately as Assistant Provost.

He has served on Advisory Boards at the Kresge Foundation, the United Negro College Fund, Gallaudet University, Carnegie Mellon University and the Council of Independent Colleges, as well as a Trustee or Board member of The Samaritans, the Andover Newton Theological School, the Independence Federal Savings Bank, Spelman College, and Harvard University’s Board of Overseers.

Dr. Wilson received a B.A. from Morehouse College, a Master of Theological Studies degree from the Harvard Divinity School, and both Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.