[2][3] The Wikipedia Student Program was started by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2010, then called the Public Policy Initiative.

[4] The Wiki Education Foundation incorporated in 2013, a process that the Wikimedia Foundation began in 2012 to give the education program "more focused and specialized support" and to "develop additional programs to promote academic research and teaching that engage with Wikipedia".

[3][5] In February 2014, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and Wiki Education Foundation announced the hiring of Frank Schulenburg, who had formerly served as senior director of programs at WMF, as the organization's first executive director.

Diana Strassmann formerly led the board of directors,[6][7] PJ Tabit having become the chair in 2017.

[8][9] Robert Cummings, director of the Center for Writing and Rhetoric and associate professor of English at the University of Mississippi, also serves on the board.