METUCHEN, N.J., March 20, 2025 — The Citizen Service, a new citizen-driven, national public service, today named John Silvanus Wilson Jr its first president. A national leader in higher education, Wilson has served as President of Morehouse College, and has held leadership positions at MIT, Harvard and the White House where he has challenged higher ed to rethink its moral foundations. Serving in a volunteer capacity, Wilson will lead a nationwide recruitment effort encouraging all Americans to get off the sidelines and take responsibility for healing our democracy.
The Citizen Service provides the tools and public service leadership training for citizens to move our country away from extremism and toward practical problem solving, starting in our hometowns. Citizens are taught how to find pragmatic solutions that are: based on evidence of success; cost effective; and benefit the broader community. Once trained they are deployed in local leadership roles that work within today’s busy lives and give them the ability to push the public dialogue toward practical solutions and away from today’s political extremism.
More than 60 colleges are already committed to offer this training mainly through their online continuing education platforms that are open to the community at large as well as college students and staff. Partnerships with youth and faith based organizations, corporations and other institutions also will serve as recruitment centers as the campaign progresses.
“John Silvanus Wilson brings the national reputation and leadership skills needed to take the Citizen Service to all Americans,” said Harry Pozycki, founder of the Citizen Service. “At this critical time when our democracy is endangered by the extremes and the risk of disengagement in the American middle, it is more important than ever that leaders like John take responsibility and motivate the rest of us to do the same. We are thrilled to have him on board.”
“The time for bystander detachment and indifference is over and the time for upstander engagement and proactivity has arrived,” said John Silvanus Wilson Jr. “The Citizen Service offers a way for all Americans to heal our democracy and serve our communities, playing an active role in shaping our nation’s future. That is why I am making this serious commitment of my time and energy.”
Wilson is the author of Hope and Healing: Black Colleges and the Future of American Democracy, released by Harvard Education Press in May 2023.
The Citizen Service was created by The Citizens Campaign, a community of problem-solvers dedicated to adding a citizen-driven dimension to our country’s leadership capacity and restoring service, civility, and pragmatism to America’s political culture.
Contact: Rob Horowitz rhorowitz99@yahoo.com
For more information, visit www.thecitizenscampaign.org.
SOURCE The Citizens Campaign