A timely contribution to Duke University School of Law from Stand Together partners Gary and Derek Wilson takes aim at an urgent national priority: solving inequities in America's criminal justice system.
Nearly all Americans (95 percent) in a June 2020 poll agreed that our country's criminal justice system needs fixing. That it needs to be more just.
"The current criminal system disproportionately harms minority communities," says Stand Together partner Derek Wilson. "When injustice holds people back, our entire country suffers."
The big question is: how do you change a hugely complex and entrenched system that generates more than 10 million arrests per year? Derek and his father Gary believe that the Center for Science and Justice at Duke University School of Law knows how, and have made a $5 million grant to support its work.
The center, which launched in 2019 with a $4.7 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation, applies an evidence-based, nonpartisan lens to studying, exposing, and remedying structural inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system.
It distresses Derek that these disparities "have the power to destroy generations of families" due to the financial, physical, and emotional toll on the accused and their children, partners, and elders. He is grateful that he and his father — both Duke University alumni — can help eliminate that destruction through the Wilson Center for Science and Justice that now bears their name.
The donation is enabling the Wilson Center to expand its scientific data-driven work in three main areas: 1) ensuring the accuracy of evidence, 2) increasing equity in criminal justice decisions, and 3) addressing the behavioral health needs of defendants. These issues target Derek and Gary's desires to end unequal treatment and wrongful convictions, which they know can create insurmountable barriers to individual prosperity.
"We are grateful for [the Wilsons'] deep commitment to equality of opportunity for all and eliminating barriers to prosperity. For too long the criminal system has operated as one of those barriers."
– Professor Brandon Garrett, Faculty Director of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice and a leading expert in criminal procedure, the death penalty, and wrongful convictions (pictured at top)
The father-son duo also values the center's distinctive interdisciplinary and inclusive methods to tackling this complex problem. Because the criminal justice system involves not just the law, but other areas such as mental health, the center pulls in faculty and students from medicine, public policy, and the arts and sciences — everyone from statisticians to psychologists — to contribute their diverse expertise.
And as the Wilson Center converts its practical research into effective policy recommendations, it incorporates the voices of government and community stakeholders — and the stories of real people caught up in the system. Empowering those closest to an issue to help solve the problem is the hallmark of Stand Together's fundamental belief in people and bottom-up approach to change.
The Wilson Center is a recent example of the impact partners have made by joining forces with the Stand Together community to fund centers of excellence at leading institutions. These academic centers produce research of consequence that's aimed at resolving society's most complex challenges.
Supercharging this particular center with a major gift comes at a crucial time, when the criminal justice system's racial disparities are on display, and the calls for reform have grown loud and persistent. Local news coverage hailed the Wilsons' grant as vital to helping policymakers and law enforcement agencies across the country heed these urgent demands for change.
A legacy of learning and giving
The Wilson Center grant is only one of several to Duke that reflect a goal that Gary and Derek share with the Stand Together community: helping people realize their potential by giving them the opportunity to discover and pursue their unique talents and passions. Their financial and non-financial contributions to Duke have supported everything from academics at The Fuqua School of Business and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, to sports and fitness through Duke Athletics and the Wilson Recreation Center on West Campus, to fine arts at the on-campus Nasher Museum of Art.
The ties to Duke started with Gary, who in high school competed at a high level in football for his town's public high school in Alliance, Ohio. And because his parents, Elvin and Fern, instilled in him a deep appreciation for the value of education, he was also an outstanding student who graduated near the top of his class. He ended up at Duke University on a football scholarship, where he met Susan, Derek's mother. His academic achievements there led to a scholarship to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania for his M.B.A.
Getting the most from his education helped Gary thrive as a senior executive in three Fortune 500 companies — as chairman of Northwest Airlines and chief financial officer at The Walt Disney Company and Marriott Corporation — and as an entrepreneur who has founded several private equity funds.
In gratitude for his parents' guidance and for his own educational opportunities in high school and at Duke, Gary established the Elvin J. Wilson–Duke University Scholarship in 1998 honoring his late father, a well-known businessman and civic leader in Alliance. The scholarship (jointly funded by Gary and Duke) helps Gary give back by annually awarding one highly qualified Alliance High School student the chance to attend his alma mater.
Like his family before him, Derek made the most of his educational opportunities, following Gary to Duke where he earned both an economics degree and an M.B.A. Derek also shares Elvin and Gary's affinities for business and entrepreneurship: He was co-founder and chairman of NeoSpire Inc., a web hosting solutions company that was purchased by Hosting.com in 2011. And today, he and Gary work together on many investments and endeavors.
Long-term partnership with Stand Together
While the family has its own private foundation (with Derek at the helm), the Wilsons also rely on Stand Together to identify and vet innovative social impact organizations they can empower and scale to help many more people realize their own version of the American Dream.
They've found that leveraging the talent and resources of the Stand Together community — including the learnings and capabilities Charles Koch has built over many decades — serves as an "impact multiplier," helping increasing their investments dramatically and ensuring strong, measurable results.
Through joint philanthropic investment and action, top business leaders who partner with each other and Stand Together to solve America's most pressing problems find that together, they can accomplish far more, for far longer, than they can alone.
"Stand Together's range of capabilities across the key institutions of society (including education, business, government, and community) can help bridge divides, impact our culture, and counter the widespread polarization in our country today."
Gary Wilson, Stand Together partner
As professional investors, Gary and Derek have learned that outsized rewards can come from backing worthy, well-run ventures over the long term. That knowledge has inspired their lengthy commitments to the Wilson Center's criminal justice reform efforts and to leading educational institutions — both K-12 and postsecondary — over time.
It's also why the two made the decision to establish an enduring gift to Stand Together Trust from the Wilson Family Foundation, to ensure the fruitful partnership between the Stand Together community and the family continues well beyond Gary's lifetime in perpetuity.
As with all contributions — immediate or planned — Stand Together Trust will ensure the gift is used for purposes that honor Gary and Derek's original donor intent: sustaining vitally important work toward a culture of equal rights and openness, where people succeed by helping others reach their full potential.
Toward a society in which there is justice for all.
Learn more about Stand Together’s criminal justice efforts and explore ways you can partner with us.
