Born in Pittsburgh and educated at Tuskeegee for her BA, Wilson holds two MAs, one in Christian Education from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University jointly, and the other in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve. She worked in the student movement with the student YWCA, in the southeastern region. She was Director of University YWCA at UCLA. After leaving WIMS and Mississippi in 1964, she shifted to Chicago to become Director of Race Relations at the Metropolitan YWCA, and from there moved up the administrative ladder. She retired in 1977 from the Y and did a variety of other work in the windy city including literacy training. In 1983 she returned to Pittsburgh, where she still lives.