Before returning to lead his alma mater in 2013, Wilson served in the United States Department of Education, at George Washington University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[2] Wilson attended Morehouse College and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979, majoring in business with a minor in religion and philosophy.

During this time, he also served as a teaching fellow at Harvard in their African American Studies program, and in the Graduate School of Education.

[5] In the presidential administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Wilson was named to head the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

[2] While at MIT, Wilson was the head of the Boston area Morehouse alumni association and received the college's Benjamin Elijah Mays Leadership Award in 1998.