Jacob I. Wilson (he/him) is a higher education researcher and student affairs professional with over a decade of experience that includes campus organizing; leadership education; diversity, equity, and inclusion; mixed-methods research; and work with campuses to develop, implement, and assess student programming for political learning and democratic engagement. His dissertation research focuses on the adoption and institutionalization of student voting initiatives on college and university campuses and the relationship between higher education and democracy in the United States.
Jacob is an alumnus of Iowa State University (’11), where he received his BA in Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies and then earned his MA in Higher Education Administration from The George Washington University (’13). He has worked on several campaigns, interned at the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, taught undergraduate leadership courses at the University of Arizona’s College of Education, and served as a Faculty Research Fellow and adjunct instructor in the College Student Personnel Administration program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville from 2019-2020. Jacob is the founder and a board member of the Missouri Courage Scholarship, a non-profit organization that awards scholarships to college-bound high school seniors working to enhance the lives of LGBTQ+ people and advance social justice.