Taylor Named ACE Fellow

Laura Taylor, professor of agricultural and resource economics, has been selected as one of 50 American Council on Education Fellows for the 2013-14 academic year.

The ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutional capacity and build leadership in American higher education. Most previous fellows have advanced into administrative positions, according to Margarita Benitez, interim director of the program. Of more than 2,000 participants since the program began, more than 300 have become chief executive officers of colleges or universities, and more than 1,300 have become provosts, vice presidents or deans.

Taylor directs the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy, which provides leadership in economics research and outreach programs to develop forward-thinking environmental policy in North Carolina. Her research focuses on policy evaluation and the valuation of natural resources and the environment. She is a member of the North Carolina Task Force for the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, and recently served on the N.C. Legislative Research Commission Advisory Subcommittee on Offshore Energy Exploration as well as the Science Advisory Board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The ACE Fellowship is Taylor’s second leadership award of the year. Last month, she received the Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship, which provides outstanding academic environmental researchers with skills and approaches to integrate science into decision‐making.