A faculty member in the former Department of Communication since 1980,
Taylor was appointed dean of the College of Communication in March 2007. The
college is the fourth-largest provider of bachelor's degrees in
communication in Illinois and second in the Chicago area. It is the
second-largest provider of master's degrees in communication in the state.
The college offers nine undergraduate majors and six master's programs.
Taylor has held numerous administrative positions in the College of Liberal
Arts and Social Sciences and the university. Previously, she was associate
vice president for Academic Affairs, where both the Office of Continuing and
Professional Education and the university's suburban campuses reported to
her.
She served as founding director of the DePaul Humanities Center for seven
years, and prior to that she was associate dean of graduate studies in
Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. She chaired the Department of
Communication from 1990 to 1995, and before that she served as director of
the women's studies program.
A performance studies scholar, Taylor was awarded the National Communication
Association Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in
Interpretation/Performance Studies in 2007. Her memoir, "Waiting for the
Call," was a 2008 finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Other works
include her monograph, "Grace Paley: Illuminating the Dark Lives," and the
co-edited volume, "Voices Made Flesh: Performing Women's Autobiography." She
has performed autobiographical pieces at Sushi Gallery in San Diego, Las
Manos Gallery in Chicago and at numerous universities and national
conferences. Her scholarly articles and essays in the area of performance
studies have appeared in Text and Performance Quarterly, Southern Speech
Communication Journal and Women's Studies in Communication. She is on the
editorial board of Text and Performance Quarterly and is a past chairperson
of the Performance Studies Division and director of the Finance Board of the
National Communication Association (NCA). Currently, she is the chairperson
of the Professional Development Committee for the American Council on
Education (ACE) Council of Fellows.
Taylor received a bachelor's degree in English and communication arts from
Georgetown College in Kentucky. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees
from the University of Texas at Austin before joining the faculty of DePaul.
She completed the Management Development Program at Harvard's Graduate
School of Education in 1996. In 2005-06, Taylor was an ACE Fellow at Kent
State University, where she worked closely with the president and provost.