Wisdom O. Cole is the national director of the NAACP Youth & College Division. For five years, he has served more than 700 youth councils, high school chapters and college chapters involved in the fight for civil rights. Cole brings local, state and national experience in civil rights advocacy training, electoral action training, grassroots organizing, and creating issues toolkits and webinars. He has managed national campaigns to build Black political power through youth leadership development, advocacy and direct action organizing.
In his time at the NAACP, Cole has worked on campaigns around the cancelation of student debt, removing police from schools, and increasing voting access for young Black people. He has been featured on Politico, NPR, VICE, NBC News in Washington, Brookings Institution and The Economist as an advocate for Black youth voter turnout through issue-based campaign organizing. He was recognized in Politico's Recast Power List 2023 honoring those who are changing the world through race and politics.
Cole was previously a field and state conference organizer for the Afrikan Black Coalition (ABC), the largest Black collegiate organization in California. In 2014, he collaboratively organized the Afrikan Black Coalition conference that featured keynote speakers such as Marc Lamont Hill, Angela Davis, Bobby Seale and Attallah Shabazz. For this effort, he received the Chancellor's Achievement Award for Diversity at UC Santa Cruz.
Cole grew up in California, where he earned a BA. in chemistry with a minor in STEM education from UC Santa Cruz and an MA in teaching from the University of San Francisco.