Ivy R. Taylor

Dr. Ivy R. Taylor has been a leader in both government and higher education. She spent twenty years in San Antonio, Texas as an affordable housing advocate, educator, and elected official. Dr. Taylor served as Mayor of San Antonio, Texas for three years and as a member of the San Antonio City Council for five years. Her career began as a City of San Antonio employee and included time at an affordable housing nonprofit organization. Her higher education professional experience started with her role as a faculty member in the Public Administration Department at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Her interest in higher education as a tool for community and personal transformation led her to serve on the boards of two universities and then to pursue a doctorate in higher education management. Upon completion of the degree, she was hired to lead a small historically black college in Mississippi where she served from 2020 to 2023.

In 2024, she began serving as a senior advisor to the President of the University of North Carolina System. Dr. Taylor also serves UNC-Chapel Hill as the Director of Local Relations. In that role, she is focused on supporting efforts to ensure that the university and surrounding community strategically work together. Additionally, she has an appointment in the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government as a Professor of the Practice in Public Leadership.

Dr. Taylor obtained a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998. Her other degrees are from Yale (B.A., 1992) and University of Pennsylvania (Ed.D., 2020).