Editor-in-Chief Essence Magazine from 1981 to 2000
Founder and CEO of National CARES Mentoring Movement
Susan L. Taylor was born in 1946 in Harlem to a Trinidadian mother and a father from St. Kitts. Mom was a housewife, Dad owned a clothing store, they raised their daughter Catholic. In 1970, Susan got a job as a freelance fashion and beauty editor for a brand-new magazine dedicated to African-American women called Essence. And the rest, as they say, is history…
Susan L. Taylor had no college degree when she first married, divorced, and became a single mother. Determined to get an education, she attended night school at Fordham University and earned a B.A. She continued to work at Essence, rose through the ranks, built the magazine up to become the most successful in its genre, and expanded its realm into syndicated TV, and spun off a book publishing arm. That was the beginning of the incredible journey of the multi-award-winning woman who is universally known today as “the most influential black women in journalism today.” How does this amazing woman accomplish so much? “We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly—spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.” That’s the secret.
For Susan Taylor’s full interview click here.