Charla Wilson

BPN Historian

Charla Wilson is the inaugural Curator (Archivist) for the Black Experience at Northwestern University Libraries, a position she began in 2017.  

 She partners with community members to collect, preserve, and make accessible archival collections and oral histories that tell the history of Northwestern’s Black student life, faculty, staff, and alums. To promote the use of these collections, Wilson creates research guides, curates digital and physical exhibits, develops audio tours, and gives presentations. She offers research consultations to researchers, students, and faculty who wish to utilize these collections.  

  Wilson has a bachelor’s in American studies from Scripps College, as well as master’s degrees in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, History from California State University San Marcos, and Education from Claremont Graduate University.