Wanda Young Wilson is an accomplished attorney with extensive marketing and business development experience. She has over 20 years of executive management experience in the public gaming industry. She began her career in the lottery business in 1993 with the inception of the Georgia Lottery Corporation, where she served as the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for 10 years.
In 2003, Wilson’s experience in public gaming and expertise in developing internal systems and controls for a start-up business brought her to Tennessee, where she accepted the position of Executive Vice President and General Counsel to the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation. On January 20, 2004, Wilson and the hard-working team at the Tennessee Lottery began selling tickets 21 days ahead of schedule. As a consequence, the Tennessee Lottery has received high acclaim as being one of most successful lottery launches in the history of the United States.
As an executive officer of the corporation, Wilson serves as general counsel, chief of staff and corporate secretary. As such, she has executive management responsibility for the corporation’s departments of legal services, contract compliance, human resources, corporate services and security. In addition, she provides strategic leadership to the other divisions and renders legal advice and counsel to the board of directors and the senior officers of the corporation.
Wilson began her legal career at a firm where she specialized in commercial real estate and housing development law; however, the majority of her legal career has been spent in the role of in-house counsel. She enjoys working with senior management and being an integral part of the business team. In addition to her legal experience, Wilson has worked as an investment banker specializing in public finance and has helped structure municipal debt for issuers nationwide.
Wilson has received several professional awards for her contributions to the public gaming industry, and her work in housing development and public finance. In 2004, she was named one of the 50 most powerful African Americans in Tennessee; in 2012 she given the Individual Star Diversity Award of Excellence from Corporate Counsel Women of Color; and in 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Powers Award by the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, given in recognition for outstanding performance by a lottery employee.
She is also very active in professional and civic organizations. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Purpose Preparatory Charter School in Nashville and is a mentor with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee. She is also a member of the Music City Chapter of The Links, Inc., and a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Over the years, she has been a member of numerous Bar Associations including Napier-Looby and the Tennessee Bar Association. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and is a founding member of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys.
Wilson earned her bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After a few years in sales and marketing she entered law school at the University of Minnesota, where she earned a Juris Doctorate degree. She also attended Boston University School of Law. Wilson is licensed to practice law in the states of Georgia, Minnesota, and Tennessee.