McKinley Wooten, Jr.

McKinley Wooten, Jr. was named the Secretary of Revenue by Governor Josh Stein effective Jan. 1, 2025. He originally joined the Department of Revenue in April 2021 as Assistant Secretary for Tax Research and Equity. He added responsibility for Submissions Processing and Business Operations in April of 2023.

A native of Kinston, NC, Wooten has more than 30 years of state government service and has held senior level leadership positions in several state agencies. After a brief stint in private practice after law school, Wooten began his public service career as a civil magistrate in Wake County in 1992.  He spent his early professional years representing citizens with disabilities at the Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities.  He later joined the NC Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General, where he spent several years representing the NC Division of Child Development, NCDHHS.

In 2001, Wooten was appointed Deputy Secretary for Internal Services, Programs and Legislative Affairs at the N.C. Department of Administration where he served for eight years. In 2009, he was named to a newly-created Deputy Director post at the NC Administrative Office of the Courts (“AOC”).  For 10 years he led efforts to create and expand treatment and recovery courts for citizens involved in the criminal court system as a result of their substance use dependency. He also led efforts to create comprehensive statewide policy to ensure that limited-English proficient court participants had access to certified court interpreters. In 2019, Wooten was appointed Interim Director at the AOC and in early 2020 was named the first African American to serve as Director of the AOC in the history of North Carolina’s unified court system. In that role he oversaw and managed the $560 million budget for the Judicial Branch of government, which is comprised of 6,400 dedicated employees.

Wooten has always taken time to work and volunteer in his community, serving on the Board of Directors for the State Employees Credit Union (“SECU”), the SECU Foundation, the NC Museum of History Foundation, the UNC School of Government Foundation, and the Alexander YMCA advisory board.  A lover of all music, Wooten has worked in music ministry for many years and presently serves as minister of music and fine arts at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Wendell, NC.

Wooten is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where in earned a B.A. degree in English, and he holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville, TN.  Wooten is married to Laura H. Wooten, a retiree from state government with 30 years of service. They are proud parents of two adult children.