February 16: Dr. Michelle Taylor

Taylor400x400

Dr. Michelle Taylor is Director of the Shelby County Health Department in Shelby County, Tennessee. Previously, she was Deputy Director for Practice Integration at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and Division Chief of the Aerospace Medicine Division at the Office of the Air National Guard Surgeon General. Dr. Taylor is a Major, Residency Trained Flight Surgeon in the Tennessee Air National Guard and an adjunct faculty at the University of Memphis, School of Public Health.

From 2014-2016, Dr. Taylor, a pediatrician, was Associate Medical Director and Deputy Administrator for Maternal and Child Health at the Shelby County Health Department. In this role, she was responsible for the overall management of Maternal and Child Health Programs (MCH) and oversaw programs geared toward providing services to under-resourced families through home visitation, case management, and outreach education. Prior to that, she was an MCH/Emergency Preparedness Physician at the Shelby County Health Department.

These leadership experiences have fueled her desire to make a real difference on behalf of vulnerable populations, with regard to chronic disease, shortened life expectancies, and concentrated poverty.

Dr. Taylor received her medical degree from East Tennessee State University, James H. Quillen College of Medicine in 2002, and completed her pediatric residency at East Tennessee State University/Johnson City Medical Center and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center from 2002-2005. She received her doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2015.