Anne Taylor, MD, learned to read before kindergarten, setting the stage for a life of learning throughout her childhood in New York. “We had books about everything: science, biographies, adventure tales,” she said. “I loved reading and learning about it all.”
When Taylor wasn’t reading, she was playing music — first the piano, as taught by her mother, and then the cello via free group lessons at school.
Although she majored in biology as an undergraduate at Hofstra University, she minored in music and French literature. “I enjoyed almost everything academically,” Taylor said, “but when I graduated, I had no idea what I wanted to do.”
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After two years studying the cello at the Manhattan School of Music, Taylor decided to change her tune. A summer job at a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center laboratory elevated her interest in biology and medicine.
While applying to attend the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, she knew it was the place for her.
“The interview was a stimulating conversation,” Taylor said. “I liked the idea of taking care of patients and making a difference in people’s lives, but the emphasis at UChicago also focused on how important discovery science was to provide the best care.”
Career with high notes
Nearly 50 years after Taylor graduated from medical school, her career has been a medley of patient care, research and leadership roles supporting faculty and programs.
At UChicago, Taylor appreciated the early introduction of clinical practice and principles, and she loved caring for South Side patients “that came from every demographic” and who “were all treated with the same compassion and evidence-based approach.”
She stayed on at UChicago for her residency and fellowship in cardiology, then continued her training at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Iowa.
Initially, her research focused on interactions among myocardial ischemia, reperfusion and function in hypertrophied myocardium, a disease state in which the heart muscle becomes thickened. But Taylor gravitated toward clinical research, chairing the steering committee for the first major clinical trial to test the effectiveness of heart failure medication in Black patients. She also studied the impact of cardiovascular disease in women.
When she became chief of cardiology at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Taylor found herself drawn to administrative leadership as a division director.
“I really enjoyed being a cardiologist, but then I found I really enjoyed program building and supporting those who implement these missions,” she said.
Advocacy and music
For nearly two decades, Taylor focused on building programs to support faculty at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was most recently vice dean for academic affairs and senior vice president for faculty affairs and career development.
She is particularly proud of the impact that her work has had on women’s career development. In 2021, her team was honored with the National Institutes of Health’s Prize for Enhancing Faculty Gender Diversity in Biomedical and Behavioral Science.
Taylor retired from Columbia this summer, but she doesn’t plan to slow down.
She plans to focus on interests beyond medicine — reading, playing and studying music, and spending time with loved ones — and to keep current with public health trends and new ways for underserved patient populations to receive healthcare.
“Medicine is a huge part of my self-identity, but I have had so many other interests and activities throughout my life that now it just feels like I’m adding to my world, not subtracting,” Taylor said.
