Greg Wilkins, Associate Director Centennial Student Union & Student Activities

Greg has worked at colleges and universities across the United States in North Carolina, Ohio, California, Florida, Minnesota, Washington state, and Washington, D.C. He has received numerous awards and honors across the country as well in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Thailand. 

Greg has a passion for social justice mirrored with his work abroad and in the United States such as: ending landmine proliferation, promoting HIV/AIDS education and IV needle exchange programs, social justice concerns, and assisting non-governmental organizations. His passion for learning and empowering others has received him accolades and special recognition from his peers around the globe. 

Greg spent his 2022-23 sabbatical as the artist-and-scholar-in-residence at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. In addition to teaching and doing research, he spent time in France, Spain, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, Slovenia, and Italy. He also worked with the Federal Performing Arts Association in Washington, D.C. in collaboration with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington for PORTRAITS for its world premier at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in June 2024. 

During his 2015-16 sabbatical he visited 16 universities and taught 18 seminars in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Bangladesh as well as worked with indigenous communities and completed a rainforest project in Borneo.

Greg has visited and volunteered on over 30% of Earth. Some examples are: He spent a month in Chile and Argentina teaching as well as working in the Andes and Patagonia with forest and land management projects. He has traveled throughout Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam viewing UNESCO World Heritage sites and teaching English in Buddhist monastaries as well as orphanges. He has volunteered in Guatemala for Spring Break, has built turtle habitats for sea turtles in Nicaragua, and completed tropical reforestation in Costa Rica as well as Australia. His interests have led him to Russia with MSU, Mankato students and faculty for a cross cultural education exchange in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Siberia. In addition, he has traveled and led undergraduates from American University in Washington, D.C. to volunteer in Thailand regarding human trafficking, social justice, and indigeous rights. Yes, he loves world travel!

Greg has volunteered with the Minnesota State Arts Board and represented greater Minnesota at the Minneapolis Art Institute on the curatorial board for the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program. He also served for 6 years on the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council and served as president for 2. He has also been engaged with Poetry Out Loud as a Minnesota accuracy judge in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Before coming to Minnesota, Greg worked at the Smithsonian Institution at the Museum of American Art, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., lobbied the U.S. Congress on sexual orientation and gender/identity equality with the Human Rights Campaign, raised over a million dollars for undergraduate scholarships, and completed two Olympics (1988, Seoul, Korea–Equestrian Intern, and 1996, Olympic Village Supervisor for Athlete Services). He has also assisted the Governor of North Carolina as an Ombudsman for stays of execution, completed work as a counselor for the Army Navy Academy in California, and has performed with and assisted global entertainers and performers of international acclaim.

As he is noted as saying, "Create a life of change impacting the lives of  the one or the many."