SAINT JOHN’S UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
The Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson will be the next president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF).
He succeeds civil rights leader and founder of CDF, Marian Wright Edelman, who announced her departure from the organization in late 2018. Wilson is a recognized leader in community organizing, racial justice and social movement building. He is already familiar with CDF, having spearheaded its CDF Freedom Schools literacy and empowerment program in the St. Louis area as well as serving as a leader of the annual CDF Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry.
Wilson joins CDF from the Deaconess Foundation, where he has served as president and CEO for the last nine years while also serving as a pastor and teacher at Saint John’s Church in St. Louis from 2008 to 2018.
Wilson’s education includes a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University in Louisiana, a master of divinity degree from the Eden Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Duke Divinity School.
Directly after earning his bachelor’s degree, Wilson knew he wanted to help children and young people through the struggles of life. He joined United Way of New Orleans in 1999 and would work for the organization as a development officer for more than five years, serving in the Dallas and St. Louis locations as well.
The Madison County Urban League took notice of his work. Wilson was brought on to lead the organization as its president and CEO in June 2004. A year later he moved on to become the director of institutional advancement at The Black Rep in St. Louis, one of the nation’s premier traditionally black theatres.
After two years at The Black Rep, he would move back into the world of theology, serving as minister at Greater Mt. Carmel Baptist Church as well as at Normandy United Methodist Church. It was after these positions that he moved on to Saint John’s, where he stayed for more than ten years.
In the aftermath of the 2014 shooting of teenager Michael Brown, Wilson took a leading role in reform efforts, co-chairing the Ferguson Commission which released the ‘Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity’ report calling for sweeping changes in policing, the criminal justice system, child well-being and economic mobility.
Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post Dispatch
The Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson stands with other protestors, scholar and author Cornel West, the Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, and pastor Renita Lamkin as they carry out an act of civil disobedience on Aug. 10, 2015 at the Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse.
Now, Wilson takes the lead at CDF in an historic leadership change—the first since its founding by Marian Wright Edelman 47 years ago.
“As the Children’s Defense Fund enters this new chapter, the CDF Board is confident that Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson is the right leader for this moment and for the future. Just as Marian Wright Edelman created the nation’s premier child advocacy organization on the foundation of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Wilson’s leadership carries CDF on to the foundation being laid by the Black Lives Matter movement,” said Board Chair Angela Glover Blackwell in a press release about the appointment. “I look forward to working with Dr. Wilson and continuing this critical work under such an inspiring leader.”
The Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson will officially begin his tenure as president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund in December.
