Retired President, Nellie Mae Educational Foundation
This article is part of groundbreaking leadership research that has received wide support and rave reviews from prominent business, political, and academic leaders who participated in the study or reviewed the research results. A total of sixteen leaders were interviewed on the theme “Leadership and Overcoming Adversity.”
Dr. Wilson overcame multiple adversities. These included significant discrimination based on race, gender, and age. Blenda’s first experience with gross discrimination was during her high school years in New Jersey. Although Blenda was in the National Honor Society, Wilson’s high school guidance counselor totally refused to discuss or help Blenda get into college. Blenda’s comment was: “Actually, she told me to ‘take a typing class’…and then she said: ‘You’re nice and you could become a secretary.'”
Wilson simply ignored the “bad” counselor and contacted several colleges directly for admission and scholarship information. Wilson was accepted to every college she applied to, including top prestigious colleges like “Seven Sisters.” However, the major universities only offered one-year scholarships with a series of renewals. Blenda wanted to get a full four-year scholarship to ensure she could complete her college education. Cedar Crest College guaranteed Blenda four years of tuition scholarships, a travel budget, and a job. So, Blenda went to Cedar Crest College and earned her degree.
She did not allow anything to stop her from receiving her education. After graduating from Cedar Crest College, Blenda earned a master’s degree in education from Seton Hall and later completed a doctorate in higher education from Boston College.
Before earning her Ph.D. and launching her leadership career in higher education, Blenda experienced gender and age discrimination from African-American men, both within her organization and in the local community. Although Wilson was clearly more qualified and educated than her male competition, many people voiced her opposition to her being named Executive Director of the Middlesex County Corporation for Economic Opportunity and the Head Start Program. Blenda Wilson noted, “African-American men in the community were upset that a woman would get this key position… One of the criteria was that they wanted someone with a master’s degree. I had one. None of the African-American men did.” Blenda experienced age and gender discrimination and bias from black and white men.
Blenda Wilson shared that taking leave from her teaching position at the local high school to become Executive Director of the Middlesex County Corporation for Economic Opportunity, “really changed my life. I started doing the Head Start program…Everything this was in the 1960s, with the “War on Poverty,” the Office of Economic Opportunity. [Wilson] I was going to change the world.”
In 1969, after earning her Ph.D., Dr. Wilson began her career in higher education administration at Rutgers University. Then, from 1972 to 1982, she Blenda “was the youngest Senior Associate Dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education,” where she, once again, was met with age discrimination.
Dr. Blenda Wilson was the First Vice President of Effective Sector Management at the Independent Sector (1982 to 1984). Independent Sector is a non-partisan coalition of approximately 600 organizations that lead, strengthen and mobilize charitable communities.
While serving in the Governor’s cabinet as Executive Director of the Colorado Higher Education Commission, she created a plan (signed into law in 1985) advocating for a more efficient organization of higher education within the state.
Dr. Wilson was the first woman to lead a four-year institution of higher education in the state of Michigan and became Chancellor of the University of Michigan Dearborn Campus from 1988 to 1992. Wilson was widely recognized for her approach to the Arab-American community of Dearborn and the African community of Detroit. -American community.
During Dr. Wilson’s tenure as president of California State University, Northridge, from 1992 to 1999, Dr. Wilson enacted a series of strategic plans to better serve the populations of the San Fernando Valley. Wilson also led the University in the enormous task of rebuilding California State University after the devastating Northridge earthquake in 1994.
Dr. Blenda Wilson was president of the prestigious American Association for Higher Education. Wilson was the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and was a Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where she served on the Board of Directors from 2003 to 2006. Dr. Wilson has served on the Board of Directors of numerous non-profit corporations such as the Getty Museum, The College Board, and most recently served as interim president of her undergraduate alma mater, Cedar Crest College.
Dr. Wilson served as the first President and CEO of the Nellie Mae Educational Foundation from 1999 to 2006. The Nellie Mae Educational Foundation, established in 1998, is New England’s largest public charity dedicated to improving academic achievement of underserved communities. During her seven-year tenure, Dr. Blenda Wilson was a highly successful executive director at the Nellie Mae Educational Foundation.
Under Dr. Wilson’s leadership, the Nellie Mae Educational Foundation (NMEF) distributed more than $80 million in grants to various educational institutions and nonprofit organizations to improve college access for in-service students. The NMEF was established to promote accessibility, quality, and effectiveness in education from preschool to post-secondary levels, especially for underserved populations. The Nellie Mae Educational Foundation has net assets of approximately $400 million, making it one of the largest foundations in New England and the largest focused exclusively on improving higher education.
Dr. Wilson has received honorary doctorates from more than 25 colleges and universities, including Cedar Crest College, Rutgers, the University of Massachusetts, Brandeis University, and Boston College. Wilson has served on the boards of trustees of Boston College and Union Theological Seminary, the board of trustees of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, the board of trustees of Higher Education Resource Services, and the boards of “After School and Beyond” in Boston. , “Boston College and Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses. Wilson currently serves on the Board of Directors for Medco Health Solutions.
Dr. Blenda Wilson has an impressive lifetime record of effectively handling difficult education policy issues. Dr. Blenda Wilson still takes time out of her busy schedule to mentor and train select prospective female leaders.
Dr. Blenda Wilson’s story shares a lifetime of fighting adversity, especially age, race, and gender discrimination, and is a prime example of a successful outstanding leader who overcame adversity.