MEETTHE NEW PRESIDENT

DONALD B. TAYLOR, PH.D.

Dr. Donald B. Taylor joined University of Detroit Mercy as the 26th president on July 1, 2022. Taylor brings nearly 30 years of higher education leadership experience to Detroit Mercy. Most recently, Taylor served as president of Cabrini University, a private 2,100-student Catholic university near Philadelphia. Prior to that, he spent 12 years in leadership roles at Benedictine University, a private Catholic university located near Chicago.

As the first in his family to attend college, he understands the transformative potential of education. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Memphis and worked as a research scientist in the biomedical sciences early in his career. “I’m a scientist by training,” Taylor said. “I like solving problems.”

Prior to his first day as president of Detroit Mercy, Taylor conducted a “listening tour” and completed several campus visits, including one at the School of Law’s Riverfront campus. He sees room for growth in several areas, many of which involve Detroit Mercy becoming more thoroughly embedded in metro Detroit. Taylor plans to call on students, staff, faculty, and alumni to live the Detroit Mercy mission through service.

“This institution has made tremendous strides,” he said. “Everything is in place to take the next step to be the university of choice for metro Detroit and beyond. When you think of Jesuit and Mercy institutions nationally, you think of Marquette, Boston College, Xavier, College of Saint Mary, and Georgian Court University, to name a few,” he said. “We should be on that level.”

Securing resources, promoting the vision, communicating University priorities, and urging people to think more entrepreneurially are his first steps. Then, he says, the University community has to take a hard look at what it can give up. “I will be asking people to do more things,” he said, “and they can’t do them on top of what they are doing now. We have to determine what we should stop doing.” Taylor knows this is a bold agenda, but he believes the University is on the right trajectory.

Excerpted and edited from The Bold Vision of Donald Taylor by Ron Bernas, published in Spiritus, Spring 2022.