Sonja Taylor

Mrs. Taylor was previously at the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM), where she was the Diversity Recruitment Manager. Her role included directing all initiatives to attract and retain underrepresented students, building and managing outreach and school district partnerships, and collaborating with civil rights, social, and community organizations to increase science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) interest and participation among racial minorities. Prior to her work at GSSM, she was a science curriculum writer for CPO Science, in Nashua, New Hampshire, where she wrote physics, chemistry, biology, and other scientific content for inquiry-based secondary science education textbooks, created model lesson plans for teachers, and managed curriculum and assessment projects in several states. Taylor was also a public high school science teacher in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and Orlando, Florida, and a chemist at the start of her career at the Flowers Chemical Laboratories.

Taylor earned a B.S., in Chemistry from Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas, an M.Ed., in Divergent Learning from Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina, and an Ed.D. at the University of South Carolina in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and culturally responsive pedagogy.