Dr. David K. Wilson, President of Morgan State University

David Wilson, Ed.D., the 10th president of Morgan State University, has a long record of accomplishment and more than 30 years of experience in higher education administration. Dr. Wilson holds four academic degrees: a B.S. in political science and an M.S. in education from Tuskegee University; an Ed.M. in educational planning and administration from Harvard University and an Ed.D. in administration, planning and social policy, also from Harvard. He came to Morgan from the University of Wisconsin, where he was chancellor of both the University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin–Extension. Before that, he held numerous other administrative posts in academia, including: vice president for University Outreach and associate provost at Auburn University, and associate provost of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Dr. Wilson's tenure as Morgan's president, which began on July 1, 2010, has been characterized by great gains and a momentum of progress for the University. Under his leadership, included among the most recent highlights are:

The elevation of Morgan from a moderate research classification of R3 (a ranking it has held since 2006), to an elevated classification of R2, a status reserved for doctoral universities with high research activity;

A second-year retention rate of above 70 percent for the past eight consecutive years;

An alumni participation-in-giving rate of 17 percent, a rate higher than most private HBCUs and higher than many public regional universities nationwide;

The highest graduation rate in 10 years at 43 percent, trending toward achieving a 50 percent graduation rate by the year 2025;The historic completion of the University's $250 Million Anniversary Campaign, the largest development effort in Morgan's history;

Procurement of the university's largest-ever research contract, a $28.5-million, five-year contract from NASA;

The founding of a new school, the School of Global Journalism and Communication;

The construction and planned construction of multiple state-of-the-art facilities including Tyler Hall Student Service Building, Martin D. Jenkins Hall, Morgan Business Center, Northwood Commons and new health and human services building; and

The continuation of Morgan's status as the No. 1 HBCU in production of Fulbright scholars and grantees, with 149 awarded in 44 countries around the world.

Dr. Wilson has authored two books and more than 20 articles published in scholarly journals. Among the many honors and recognitions he has received for his work: he was named one of the nation’s top 100 leaders in higher education by the American Association of Higher Education in 1998, was selected as one of The Daily Record newspaper’s Influential Marylanders for 2011, and was honored by the University of Alabama with an award for outstanding leadership in engaged scholarship in April 2011.

In April 2019, Dr. Wilson was appointed to serve on the NCAA Board of Governors and Division I Board of Directors, and in 2018, the Lumina Foundation elected Dr. Wilson to serve on its Board of Directors. Prior to this election, the U.S Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology had appointed him to serve a three-year term as a member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology. He is a former chairman of the HBCU/China Network, a member of the Maryland Cybersecurity Council and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System Governing Board and serves on the Boards of Directors of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. In 2010, former President Barack Obama appointed him to his 11-member Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Dr. Wilson served on the Board of United Way of Central Maryland.

Dr. Wilson’s achievements as leader of Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University have clearly been strong, but it is the character he brings to the presidency, a character shaped by the intangibles of his background, that is perhaps most impressive of all. Dr. Wilson grew up with 10 siblings on a sharecropper farm outside the small town of McKinley, Ala. Through hard work, tenacity and the encouragement of his father and his teachers, he became the first person in his family to attend college. Dr. Wilson builds upon that legacy as the proud father of Nyere Brown Wilson, a current student majoring in business administration at Morgan.

Dr. Wilson’s educational philosophy is to put the students’ experience first. As a leader, he is a consensus builder and a strong believer in transparency of process. His goal is to make Morgan a leader in producing the next wave of innovators in the U.S.