Successful businesswoman, educator, community leader and Quad Cities Chamber CEO LaDrina Wilson may be the textbook example of what regional development leaders call a “Quad Citizen.” In essence, they are the movers and shakers who make things happen in and for the Quad Cities community. Ms. Wilson, whom our readers chose as the QCBJ’s 2022 […]
Successful businesswoman, educator, community leader and Quad Cities Chamber CEO LaDrina Wilson may be the textbook example of what regional development leaders call a “Quad Citizen.”In essence, they are the movers and shakers who make things happen in and for the Quad Cities community. Ms. Wilson, whom our readers chose as the QCBJ’s 2022 Most Influential Leader checks those boxes and more. And yet, Ms. Wilson told the QCBJ, like many QC young people, as a teenager she had no plan to spend the rest of her life in the place where she was born and raised. Brighter lights were calling.From left, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Col. Shari Bennett, commander of the Rock Island Arsenal Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center, talk with LaDrina Wilson at a recent event on Arsenal Island. CREDIT QUAD CITES CHAMBERSo after graduating from Moline High School, she left the QC to run track at Northern Arizona University. After earning a bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising, it was on to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she launched her education career with the University of Phoenix.“Vegas was a place I fell in love with at 18 years old,” she recalled. “I remember visiting there and seeing all the lights on the strip and thinking: One, I’m never going back home and two, I have to live here.”While at NAU she met and began dating the man she calls her rock, Jadiem Wilson. “I got married in 2006 and after having my first daughter, I realized there’s no place like home,” Ms. Wilson said.“I am the definition of the classic QC boomerang story,” she added. “I moved back to the QC thinking we’d save money to buy a house out West and my little one would have some time with her grandparents, but my husband and I quickly found an abundance of career opportunities.”It proved to be the right choice for the couple and their now four daughters. “Our friends out West lost everything during the 2008 recession, and we found abundance,” she said of the Quad Cities. “It made it very clear that this was where we’d lay our roots.”They’ve become planted so deeply in the QC landscape that 2022 was an especially busy one for Ms. Wilson. Upon learning of her selection as most influential leader, Ms. Wilson said she was “flattered and humbled.” Then, she added: “I also quickly had the thought ‘Have I used my influence in the best ways possible? Is there more I can and should be doing?’ My next thought was, if I’d known I was ‘the most influential,’ would I have done anything different?”That need to do more and do it more effectively is a driving force for the way Ms. Wilson lives her life. For example, while leading her own busy Iman Consulting firm – a leading leadership and diversity consulting service – and helping to lead nonprofit campaigns and organizations, she also agreed to fill the top professional leadership post at the Quad Cities Chamber.The community and economic development organization had been working for months to find a replacement for former President and CEO Paul Rumler. He left in March to take over as CEO and executive vice president at CCIM Institute. Then, his interim replacement Mike Oberhaus – a longtime chamber stalwart – left the chamber in July.The chamber board conducted an extensive search but was unable to find the right candidate in a job market with too few candidates chasing too many jobs. In July, board leaders named Ms. Wilson the interim leader. And then, on Aug. 11 at the chamber’s annual meeting, Chamber Board Chair Debbie Anselm introduced Ms. Wilson as the organization’s new chief executive officer.“My primary goals during my time at the chamber are to support the staff who have experienced significant transition in the past few months and even the past few years,” Ms. Wilson told the QCBJ. She also praised the work of the chamber’s “tremendous staff” during that difficult period. “A significant challenge that I’m addressing is moving from a right now/ immediate needs/reactionary organization toward a future focused aspirational organization,” she said recently. “The chamber has tackled meeting business needs following the devastating floods of 2019 and immediately pivoted to supporting member and non-member, embattled businesses devastated by COVID-19.”Now, as she told chamber leaders in August, it’s time for the organization to “switch from survival mode to revival mode.” Her 18-month chamber contract is time bound by design. “I think it creates an appropriate sense of urgency with our respective stakeholders,” she said. “We have important work that needs to be done and there’s no time to waste. We also have enough time to vet ideas and include a wide variety of stakeholders in casting our vision.”Her duties also include developing the chamber’s vision and strategic plan and listening to the investors to align the plan to their expectations, she said. “We are currently evaluating how our work is communicated across the region and finding that one of the biggest challenges is providing the community with a clearer picture of all that we do,” she added. “And we do a lot! It’s time that we define who we are and what our region is capable of when we’re not in a crisis.”The chamber’s work is a significant time commitment for Ms. Wilson, who also is the CEO of her own Iman Consulting. She launched that company as a leadership consulting firm but it has since evolved to become a leader in consulting with employers on the issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice. But Ms. Wilson, the daughter of a hard-working and supportive single mother, is no stranger to juggling multiple commitments. At age 31, while serving at Eastern Iowa Community Colleges as one of the youngest dean of students in Iowa, she opted to get her Ph.D. “I never aspired to be a college president; however, I didn’t want to lock myself out of opportunities, especially since I was so young,” she said. “I figured consulting might be something I was interested in down the road and the credential would give me opportunities to research, which I love to do, add value in my workplace and eventually choose what I wanted later.”Circumstances, opportunities and personal experience led her to launch Iman Consulting. The word “Iman” is Arabic for faith and it is also the middle name of Ms. Wilson’s daughter Brooklyn who, despite being diagnosed with alopecia universalis, is “bold, courageous and unreserved – she is exactly what we hope to inspire in leaders,” the consulting firm’s website said.Has there been progress?“In a lot of ways many organizations and companies now have an open ear to the messages that historically marginalized and minoritized communities have been sending for many years. So, in a way that feels like progress,” Ms. Wilson said. Going forward, she said she hopes that leaders in the region will rally around short-term and long-term strategies that bridge the equity gaps that exist along racial lines. “This starts in education, impacts our workforce and ultimately determines who has full access to income to improve their quality of life,” she said.The Quad Cities Most Influential Leader also had some advice for young people who are just starting their paths and their careers: “My tip for young folks is to be the person who shows up and cares — not for personal gain, but for the betterment of the community. If you try to make the community a better place for others, you will reap the rewards of your efforts. Nothing worth accomplishing happens in isolation. Build a network of caring and compassionate people who you support and who support you. This can happen through volunteerism.”For Ms. Wilson, community leadership in 2022 also includes co-chairing the 2022 United Way Annual Campaign and supporting: Delta Sigma Theta, Incorporated, a historically black sorority; the Quad Cities Community Foundation Board; the Regional Development Authority Executive Board; state lead for Iowa’s Empathy Network under Dream.org; Quad Cities Minority Partnership and United Way’s African American Leadership Society. “I like to think of the last year as the year of opportunity and I was able to cease the moment,” she told the QCBJ. “I’ve always led with the idea that to whom much is given much is required.”
Ladrina Wilson at glance:
Quad Cities born and raised.
Moline High School graduate.
Ran track at Northern Arizona University in 2001 and earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising in 2004 from NAU.
She holds a master’s degree in education from Western Illinois University-Quad Cities campus and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Iowa State University.
Married to Jadiem Wilson.
Mother of four daughters, ages 18, 15, 12, and 9
“The challenges related to population growth and business growth in Illinois are not lost on me and it will take the collective effort of leaders in Illinois and Iowa to bridge that gap. Our bifurcated region has the benefit of federal legislative influence of both states. We have businesses who are running successful operations on both sides of the river, despite the legislative and policy differences of each state. We need to work together to learn from those that have been successful to bridge the gap that exists.” LaDrina Wilson, CEO, Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce; CEO, Iman Consulting
