Full Name
Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson
Job Title
President & CEO
Company
Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and CDF Action
Speaker Bio
Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson is president & CEO of Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and CDF Action.
Founded in 1973, CDF builds community so young people grow up with dignity, hope, and joy. Children’s
Defense Fund envisions a nation where marginalized children flourish, leaders prioritize their well-being, and communities wield the power to ensure they thrive. It pursues this vision through policy advocacy, community organizing, and a network of CDF Freedom Schools in 100 U.S. cities and thirty states.
Distinguished for activism in philanthropy, faith, and community, Dr. Wilson’s public ministry includes service to vital national institutions. He is the first African American to chair the board of trustees for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest health philanthropy, and chairs the board of visitors for Duke University’s Divinity School. Starsky previously led boards of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) and Forum for Theological Exploration.
Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University of Louisiana, Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary, and Doctor of Ministry from Duke University. A member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Starsky is a Jack & Jill Father in the Potomac Valley Chapter, married to Dr. LaToya Smith Wilson, Potomac Valley Chapter President and a dentist. Their oldest son, Starsky II, a rising junior at Howard University, graduated out of the chapter in 2023. Three children remain active: Dallas, a rising senior who is Chapter Teen President, Mason who is in the Senior Teen Grade Group, and Amber who is in the Third through Fifth Grade Group.
Since joining CDF in 2020, Dr. Wilson has sharpened strategy while managing its first leadership transition. He re-activated CDF Action, a sister organization for grassroots legislative education, lobbying and public accountability. In 2021, he established a Leadership Development and Organizing team focused on base building with key constituencies. In 2022, they relaunched CDF’s Black Student Leadership Network to train college students in community organizing and initiated capacity building cohorts for faith communities to advocate for children’s policy. To infuse public policy with youth voice, in 2023 he merged the American Youth Policy Forum into CDF and published a 2030 public policy agenda informed by listening sessions within CDF Freedom Schools.
From 2011 through 2020, Rev. Wilson was president & CEO of Deaconess Foundation, a faith-based
philanthropy for child well-being and racial justice in St. Louis. From 2008 through 2018, he also pastored Saint John’s Church (The Beloved Community), a multiracial congregation in the city. Under his leadership, the foundation constructed and established the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, a community action tank engaging thousands of citizens annually. After the police killing of Michael Brown, Jr. in 2014, Starsky hosted the #BlackLivesMatter Freedom Ride to Ferguson and other mobilizations and was appointed co-chair of the Ferguson Commission, which released the ‘Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity’ Report, calling for sweeping changes in policing, the courts, child well-being and economic mobility in 2015.
Dr. Wilson has published essays, sermons and chapters in several books, including Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide & Prophet (2020); The Momentum of Hope: Personal Stories of Moral Injury (2018); and Transitions: Leading Churches through Change (2011). He is currently completing a manuscript under contract with Pilgrim Press regarding theologies of child well-being. Rev. Wilson has received several significant honors; including four honorary doctorates, induction into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers of MLK International Chapel at Morehouse College, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) National Achievement and Outstanding Leadership Award, designation as the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) James Joseph Lecturer, and the Saint Louis Award.
Founded in 1973, CDF builds community so young people grow up with dignity, hope, and joy. Children’s
Defense Fund envisions a nation where marginalized children flourish, leaders prioritize their well-being, and communities wield the power to ensure they thrive. It pursues this vision through policy advocacy, community organizing, and a network of CDF Freedom Schools in 100 U.S. cities and thirty states.
Distinguished for activism in philanthropy, faith, and community, Dr. Wilson’s public ministry includes service to vital national institutions. He is the first African American to chair the board of trustees for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest health philanthropy, and chairs the board of visitors for Duke University’s Divinity School. Starsky previously led boards of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) and Forum for Theological Exploration.
Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University of Louisiana, Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary, and Doctor of Ministry from Duke University. A member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Starsky is a Jack & Jill Father in the Potomac Valley Chapter, married to Dr. LaToya Smith Wilson, Potomac Valley Chapter President and a dentist. Their oldest son, Starsky II, a rising junior at Howard University, graduated out of the chapter in 2023. Three children remain active: Dallas, a rising senior who is Chapter Teen President, Mason who is in the Senior Teen Grade Group, and Amber who is in the Third through Fifth Grade Group.
Since joining CDF in 2020, Dr. Wilson has sharpened strategy while managing its first leadership transition. He re-activated CDF Action, a sister organization for grassroots legislative education, lobbying and public accountability. In 2021, he established a Leadership Development and Organizing team focused on base building with key constituencies. In 2022, they relaunched CDF’s Black Student Leadership Network to train college students in community organizing and initiated capacity building cohorts for faith communities to advocate for children’s policy. To infuse public policy with youth voice, in 2023 he merged the American Youth Policy Forum into CDF and published a 2030 public policy agenda informed by listening sessions within CDF Freedom Schools.
From 2011 through 2020, Rev. Wilson was president & CEO of Deaconess Foundation, a faith-based
philanthropy for child well-being and racial justice in St. Louis. From 2008 through 2018, he also pastored Saint John’s Church (The Beloved Community), a multiracial congregation in the city. Under his leadership, the foundation constructed and established the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, a community action tank engaging thousands of citizens annually. After the police killing of Michael Brown, Jr. in 2014, Starsky hosted the #BlackLivesMatter Freedom Ride to Ferguson and other mobilizations and was appointed co-chair of the Ferguson Commission, which released the ‘Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity’ Report, calling for sweeping changes in policing, the courts, child well-being and economic mobility in 2015.
Dr. Wilson has published essays, sermons and chapters in several books, including Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide & Prophet (2020); The Momentum of Hope: Personal Stories of Moral Injury (2018); and Transitions: Leading Churches through Change (2011). He is currently completing a manuscript under contract with Pilgrim Press regarding theologies of child well-being. Rev. Wilson has received several significant honors; including four honorary doctorates, induction into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers of MLK International Chapel at Morehouse College, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) National Achievement and Outstanding Leadership Award, designation as the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) James Joseph Lecturer, and the Saint Louis Award.
Speaking At
