Justin P. Wilson

Justin P. Wilson, Tennessee comptroller emeritus, has been named winner of the 2023 Robert Sparks Walker Lifetime Achievement Award, administered by TDEC. Wilson has been one of Tennessee’s most important conservationists over the last five decades through his work and contributions in the public sector, private business, and non-profit partnerships. His knowledge in the law, public policy, people, and possibilities has made a clear, lasting difference for Tennessee. Wilson served as commissioner of TDEC from 1996-1997 and deputy governor for policy under Gov. Don Sundquist in 1997-2003. He served six consecutive terms in 2009-2021 as Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. He also helped establish the 300-mile Cumberland Trail that now bears his name and initiated a regional air quality collaboration meeting in 2001 between the governors of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. He also led efforts to Wilson led efforts to clean up one of the largest and severely contaminated Resource Conservation and Recovery Act sites in Tennessee – the 7,700-acre Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant in Chattanooga that became Enterprise South. In 1986, he was one of seven founding members of the Nashville Tree Foundation and served as its first treasurer.