The Reverend Starsky D. Wilson is president & CEO of Deaconess Foundation, a faith-based grant making organization devoted to making child well-being a civic priority in the St. Louis region. Wilson earned a bachelor of arts in political science from Xavier University of Louisiana, master of divinity from Eden Theological Seminary and is pursuing the doctor of ministry degree at Duke Divinity School. Rev. Wilson is also pastor of Saint John's Church (The Beloved Community) in St. Louis. At Saint John's, Wilson has led congregational activism on myriad issues, including youth violence prevention, Medicaid expansion, public school accreditation, voter mobilization, and initiative petitions to cap predatory lending rates and raise the minimum wage in Missouri, while more than tripling worship attendance and financial stewardship in five years.

Rev. Wilson was recently selected by Missouri Governor, Jeremiah Nixon, to co-chair the Ferguson Commission, created to study and make specific recommendations for how to make progress on the issues raised by events in Ferguson. In other community leadership, Wilson serves boards for the United Church of Christ Cornerstone Fund, YMCA of Greater St. Louis, FOCUS-St. Louis, Teach for America-St. Louis and the Mayor's Commission on Children, Youth and Families, where he co-chaired the Regional Youth Violence Prevention Task Force. He is a member of the governing council for Washington University's Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences and the Professional Advisory Council for the Brown School of Social Work. Under his leadership, the Urban League Young Professionals established St. Louis' Young Blacks Give Back initiative, which has provided thousands of community service hours to local non-profits over the last 12 years.