Ivy R. Taylor is a professor of practice in public leadership at the School of Government. With 20 years of experience in San Antonio, Texas, she has been an affordable housing advocate, educator, and elected official, and served as mayor for three years. Starting her career as a City of San Antonio employee, Taylor later joined the University of Texas at San Antonio as a faculty member in Public Administration. She has also served on the San Antonio Planning Commission, the boards of the city’s utilities, and as a commissioner for the San Antonio Urban Renewal Agency.
Her passion for higher education as a means of community and personal transformation motivated her to serve on the boards of two universities and to pursue a doctorate in higher education management. After completing her degree, she was appointed to lead a small historically Black college in Mississippi, where she served from 2020 to 2023.
In 2024, she returned to North Carolina as a senior advisor to the University of North Carolina System President. Taylor also works as director of local relations for UNC-Chapel Hill, focusing on supporting the efforts of various stakeholders to ensure that the University and the surrounding community work together strategically.
Taylor earned her 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 (BA, 1992) and the University of Pennsylvania (EdD, 2020).Â
