Ivy Taylor

Ivy R. Taylor serves as Professor of the Practice in Public Leadership at the School of Government. She has been a leader in both government and higher education. She spent 20 years in San Antonio, Texas as an affordable housing advocate, educator, and elected official. 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. Taylor also served on the San Antonio Planning Commission, on the boards of San Antonio’s two utilities, and was previously a Commissioner for the San Antonio Urban Renewal Agency. 

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

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 the University of Pennsylvania (Ed.D., 2020).