Kathy Taylor, Esq.

Kathy Taylor, Esq, serves as the fourth President and CEO of the Connecticut Community Foundation in the Foundation’s 103-year history. Having served as a professor for over eighteen years, Kathy’s commitment to improving the lives of those around her never stopped at the door of her classroom. In her community, she served as Board Chair of the Connecticut Community Foundation as well as a Director of the Board and corporator for Ion Bank. In this capacity, she chairs the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act committee ensuring that there is fidelity to both the letter and spirit of the law.

 

Generous with her time and treasure, Kathy is also a founding member of both the Women’s Giving Circle and the Waterbury Black Giving Circle. As an Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Kathy partnered with visionary educational, non-profit, and corporate leaders, guiding organizational learning journeys. Her facilitation specifically focused on encouraging all to challenge assumptions, uncover and reflect upon hidden biases, evaluate current practices and policies in light of new learning, and think deeply about aligning values and vision with everyday practice.

 

At the core, Kathy’s work – from the classroom to the boardroom - centers on improving the lives of those around her, engaging in crucial conversations of inclusion and equity, and working intentionally and purposefully to cultivate a more inclusive, rich, just, and thriving Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills. She leads the Foundation knowing that it has to live and breath its values of Integrity and transparency courage and purpose, thoughtful leadership and equity, diversity and inclusion. Focused on promoting equitable opportunity, encouraging community engagement, strengthening nonprofits, being responsive and adaptive as well as aligning the Foundation’s work with its values and priorities, Kathy is keenly aware of the awesome responsibility to expertly safeguard the community’s generosity to ensure that things get better for so many more of our neighbors.

 

And it all started at Hampton University where she earned her B.A. in Psychology before receiving her Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law. Licensed to practice in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, Kathy enjoys her work and her impact earned her Connecticut’s Magazine’s 40 Under 40 Future Leaders (she has long since aged out of that category!) Married to her college sweetheart, Kevin, Kathy is the mother of three – Michael, Jonathan, and Elise. A tireless advocate for her community, Kathy lives and breathes the motto, “To whom much is given, much is required.