Former San Antonio mayor appointed president of college in Mississippi

Former Mayor Ivy Taylor will be the next president of Rust College, a historically black college in northern Mississippi.

Trustees of the college in Holly Springs announced Friday that Taylor would be the 12th president of the 800-student school, which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

Taylor will succeed David Beckley, who has been Rust’s president for 27 years. She will be the first female president of Rust, chosen after an eight-month search.

Taylor served as mayor for three years and as a city councilwoman for five.

She spent six years as a lecturer in public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She also served on the city’s Planning Commission and was a commissioner for the San Antonio Urban Renewal Agency.

“We believe the abilities she gained in nonprofit management and political leadership will be readily transferable to an academic setting,” said David Swinton, chair of Rust’s board of trustees.

Taylor holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She recently completed a doctorate in education at the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation focusing on leadership at historically black colleges and universities.

Taylor currently works as a consultant and is a trustee of the University of the Incarnate Word and of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin.

“I am thrilled to be part of writing the next chapter for this historic institution,” Taylor said in a statement.