2014 Most Influential Women Honoree: Carol Taylor

Evangel University’s Carol Taylor is known for whipping higher education institutions into shape.

Before moving to Springfield to serve as the first female president of Evangel, she also was the first woman to serve as president of Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif., and lead the team that helped pull the Southern California Assemblies of God school out of a crisis.  

Joining Vanguard as provost and vice president for academic affairs in summer 2007 and named president in 2009, Taylor was involved in cutting roughly $1.7 million from the school’s operating budget and tackling some $32 million in debt.

With that situation and the resignation of two presidents leading up to her tenure, the school’s reaccredidation process looked bleak.

“The school was placed on probation with the message that if we could sustain the momentum of change and progress, the commission would consider reducing or removing the sanction in one year rather than two,” Taylor says. “That summer, a new board appointed me as president and the following summer, one year later, the accreditation sanction was removed with a recognition of ‘significant institutional turnaround.’”

Taylor brings her hands-on approach to Evangel, where she succeeds 40-year President Robert Spence. She stands at the forefront as Evangel consolidates with Assemblies of God Theological Seminary and Central Bible College and pushes its combined debt load below $30 million.

As one of her first acts, Taylor – who officially took over as president and CEO of Evangel in May after a year as president-elect – enacted a 6 percent decrease in the school’s workforce last winter, as well as reductions in other operational expenses leading to budget savings of more than $1 million.

“In each place of service, I have only asked others to do what I was willing to do first,” Taylor says. “As an undergraduate student years ago at Evangel, I never imagined being a university president. I just said ‘yes’ to each new opportunity with the hope of making a contribution and learning.”

Taylor uses her position as a woman of influence to power the Women’s Leadership Development Institute, a summer program offered by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. For this program, she serves as a lecturer, facilitator and mentor.

Shortly after arriving in Springfield, Taylor began meeting with a group of female professionals, led by Candy Letterman of Arvest Bank, to discuss how women could be encouraged in the Springfield area. Those talks led to an initial gathering of around 50 professional women and a panel of female executives who shared their knowledge during a question and answer session hosted at Evangel.[[In-content Ad]]