Dr. Myra Jones-Taylor

Dr. Myra Jones-Taylor is the Commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood. The Connecticut Office of Early Childhood was established in 2013 to coordinate and improve the various early childhood programs and components in the state to create a cohesive, high-quality early childhood system.  Governor Dannel P. Malloy appointed her to lead the new agency in June 2013. In this role Dr. Jones-Taylor oversees an annual budget of approximately $275 million and 130 staff responsible for early care and education programs, childcare licensing, home visiting services and early intervention in the state.

Dr. Jones-Taylor previously served as an assistant professor-faculty fellow at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University. She is a cultural anthropologist with expertise in early care and education policy. Her research focused on the effects of early care and education reform on childcare providers in low-income urban communities and the children and families who are intended to benefit from those reforms. 

She received her doctorate in American studies and anthropology from Yale University, where she also received two master’s degrees: one in African American studies and the other in American studies. Dr. Jones-Taylor is currently a Pahara-Aspen Institute Fellow as well as an Aspen-Ascend Fellow. She is a former Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy Fellow and a recipient of the Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship. She is a former member of the New Haven Board of Education and the New Haven Early Childhood Council, and former Board Secretary of All Our Kin, a nationally-recognized organization that trains and supports home-based child care providers. She was also an Honorary Faculty Research Fellow at the Humanities Initiative at New York University.

Dr. Jones-Taylor lives in New Haven, Connecticut with her husband and two children.