Ivy Taylor

Ivy Ruth Taylor (born June 17, 1970) is the former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas from 2014 through 2017, and the former president of Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi from 2017 through 2023. The former politician and urban planner was a nonpartisan officeholder, although she is registered as a Democrat. She was also the first African American to be elected mayor of San Antonio and only the second woman in that position. In addition, Taylor was the first female African-American mayor of a city with a population of more than one million. Early life and education Taylor was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York. She told Texas Monthly, "I was born in Brooklyn, but I grew up in Queens". She attended Public School 95 (Eastwood) in the Jamaica neighborhood. Taylor's parents moved to New York City from Wilmington, North Carolina. Her mother was a member of the Pentecostal Holiness Church. Her parents did not attend college and divorced when she was young. Taylor obtained a bachelor's degree in American Studies in 1992 from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, a master's degree in City and Regional Planning in 1998 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2020. Taylor was initiated into Delta Sigma Theta during her time at Yale. In 1997, as a graduate student, Taylor participated in a ten-week internship with the San Antonio Affordable Housing Association, a coalition of affordable-housing groups. Career In 1999, after graduation, Taylor returned to San Antonio and began working as the municipal community development coordinator in the Housing and Community Development Department. After six years of employment with the City of San Antonio, Taylor in August 2004, went to work for Merced Housing Texas, an affordable housing agency. She also served on the City Planning Commission as a commission member from 2006 to 2008. She has also served on the board of directors for the Urban Renewal Agency (San Antonio Development Agency), and Haven for Hope. She served on the board of directors for the Martinez Street Women's Center. She became the president of Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on June 1, 2020. Taylor left Rust College as of May 6, 2023.