Dedicated to public service, she rose up through the Mokihana Club on Kauai, prior to the August 26, 1920 passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which gave women the legal right to vote.

Although born into an economically privileged family, she spent her adult life championing public school teachers, and volunteering in community services.

[4] Another one of Elsie's sisters, Mabel Isabel Wilcox (1882–1978), served with the Red Cross in Europe during World War I, and was decorated by Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of Belgium and by the Mayor of Le Havre.

[9] Wilcox was a founding member and first president of the Mokihana Literary Club in 1905, organized with the express purpose of, " ...the study and discussion of various governments of the world.

Twenty years after the club's founding, it had been so varied and far-reaching in its influence that the Honolulu Star-Bulletin ran a four-part series to cover their accomplishments.

That same year, territorial governor Charles J. McCarthy appointed her to fill a vacancy on the Board of Commissioners of Public Instruction from Kauai.

She strongly objected to the 1932 resolution for reduction of hundreds of teaching jobs, joined in the opposition only by superintendent of instruction Will C.

[19] Her 1936 and 1938 re-elections allowed her to introduce legislation to equalize the pay standard for teachers, and help push the amended version through the legislature.

[25] For the remainder of her life, Elsie continued to hold membership and positions in a number of civic and political organizations.