He received his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013 where his work through the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities established an impactful school-university partnership supporting teacher inquiry and adolescent disciplinary literacy. His research explores the intersection of disciplinary literacies and socially just pedagogy in the hope of creating more equitable schools. Dr. Wilder currently serves as a faculty in residence at Fisher Middle School where he partners with teachers to apprentice students into the reading, writing, reasoning, and discourses within STEAM disciplines.