Erin E. Wilson serves as the Senior Director for Extremism & Human Rights at Human Rights First (HRF). Immediately before joining HRF, she served as the Director the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Presidential Initiative, The People v. Hate: Standing Up for Humanity, on behalf of the 2021 NAAG President, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. The initiative focused on addressing acute forms of hate, such as hate crimes, and the legacy of hate that permeates our institutions and continues to perpetuate injustice. She also served as the Attorney General’s Senior Policy Advisor on issues related to social and racial justice, hate, and domestic extremism. Prior to joining the Washington D.C. Office of the Attorney General, Ms. Wilson spent nearly twenty years in the federal government executive and legislative branches—Capitol Hill, NCTC, State, DHS—developing strategy, policy, and programs to prevent hate and extremism, and to promote social justice. For instance, in 2019 she was a Brookings Legislative Fellow and Senior Policy Advisor in the Senate, where she furthered legislation to improve social justice, prevent hate, and counter violent white supremacy. Over her career, Ms. Wilson has established herself as a leading expert on counter hate and domestic extremism policy and programs. She boasts an extensive track record of building and leading diverse coalitions including community stakeholders and federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to design and implement strategies, policies, and programs to counter hate and extremism, while promoting civil rights. Ms. Wilson earned her master’s degree in Comparative Politics and Conflict Studies, with an emphasis on extremism, from the London School of Economics. She received her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Michigan State University.
The Eradicating Hate Global Summit was both eye-opening and empowering. To have so many experts in the field of countering hate, all there sharing their expertise, working towards practical and real world solutions, was incredibly unique. It is this focus on meaningful conversations, answers, and solutions that makes Eradicating Hate so incredibly important. The spread of hate is a wicked problem, and the way Eradicating Hate approaches it is how we are going to solve it.
