Professor Taylor is an expert on community economic development (CED) and hybrid enterprise. Taylor's focus is guided by two key premises.

1. Everyday people should have the essential resources and tools necessary to improve their economic livelihoods on their own terms, and;
2. The types of institutions we build and leverage for economic development should be structured to bring out the best in individuals and our communities.

CED programming should be about enhancing democratic performance in that the programming should seek to advance institutions for collective action. Taylor’s programming takes seriously the need to go beyond the market-state dichotomy, and develop a toolbox of institutional forms. These “hybrid institutions” sit between market and state entities and are comprised of a range of entity types: co-ops, buying groups, B-corps, Employee/Consumer Stockholder Ownership Plans (ESOPs and CSOPs), Nonprofits, Associations, and Government-sponsored enterprises.

Taylor achieves this through an “appreciative,” solutions-oriented research agenda that seeks to inspire community action, develop new institutions, and enhance those organizations vital for communities to thrive. Taylor’s Cooperative Extension educational work seeks to inspire communities to act in cultivating their individual capabilities, developing these institutions, and enhancing those organizations vital for individuals and communities to thrive.

Taylor is originally from rural Illinois. Prior to joining U.C. Davis and U.C.A.N.R., Taylor was a Research Associate at Indiana University’s Ostrom Workshop. He holds a Ph.D. in Human and Community Development and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Illinois and is a proud graduate of Lake Land Community College. Taylor has worked as a Legislative Aide for a Member of Congress, consulted in business strategy and economic and international development, and engaged in board development and facilitation around strategic planning. As a first-generation Ph.D. and professor, Taylor feels an enormous responsibility to make social science work to empower the kinds of communities he grew up in.