Dr. Donald Taylor

Biography

Donald H. Taylor is a health policy scholar at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He has focused on rural health, identifying underserved areas, and the economics of smoking cessation over the past two decades. His work emphasizes the societal care of the elderly and its effects on individuals, families, and public programs, particularly concerning inter-generational wealth. Taylor utilizes archival research methods to narrate the role of race in history—spanning individual, institutional, and national perspectives. His emerging interests include how visual art and fiction can more effectively communicate issues of inequality than traditional data-driven appeals in public policy. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has served as the Director of the Social Science Research Institute since 2019. Taylor has also held significant leadership roles at Duke, including serving as Chair of the Academic Council from 2017 to 2019.

Research Interests