Beattra Wilson

Beattra Wilson is a diversity strategist and urban forester. She is founder and managing director of IDEATION308, a diversity and inclusion consulting firm that provides workforce inclusion solutions and community engagement strategies. Wilson has a twenty-year public service career and currently leads urban and community forestry at the U.S. Forest Service— overseeing assistance to more than 7,500 communities, annually. She has completed leadership assignments to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Management and Budget and led departmental outreach and customer experience committees for the Office of the Secretary at USDA.

Wilson mentors students in urban forestry and agricultural degree programs and serves as a strategic adviser on recruitment and retention programs at historically black colleges and land grant universities. Wilson knows first-hand the importance of representation and engagement when seeking environmental justice and sustaining our natural resources for everyone to enjoy. As a contributing writer for AGDAILY, she focuses on racial justice and equity in agriculture and rural America.

Wilson has received several awards throughout her career, including the USDA Secretary of Agriculture Award and Society of Municipal Arborists’ President’s Award, and was named to her alma mater’s inaugural Forty Under Forty Cohort. She has a Bachelor of Science in Urban Forestry from Southern University and Master of Public Administration from Kennesaw State University. Wilson lives in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and enjoys biking neighborhood trails with her husband and two children.