AccelerateMS Executive Director Dr. Courtney Taylor focuses on ‘strategy, coordination’
Begins duties Saturday after three years with the Jackson-based agency under outgoing boss Ryan Miller
By JOSH MITCHELL
Editor
River Mississippi News
JACKSON, MISS. — Mississippi’s economic-growth mission recently installed a new leader with the announcement of Dr. Courtney Taylor as executive director of AccelerateMS.
Taylor takes the helm of the Jackson-based office this Saturday after being previously confirmed by the State Workforce Investment Board (SWIB).
AccelerateMS began three years ago and aims to better position Mississippi’s workers and companies for success through “strategy and coordination,” a news release from the agency states.
Outgoing Executive Director Ryan Miller has been leading the Jackson-based agency, which began during the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.
However, Taylor served as deputy director during that time and has previously worked in economic development on the community-college level in Mississippi and Alabama for 15 years.
“Over the past four years, we’ve overhauled our approach to workforce development in Mississippi,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in the news release.
Reeves said these steps have brought about “high-quality training programs” and “thousands of high-paying jobs created for Mississippians.”
Reeves lauded Taylor as a “highly capable and proven” workforce-training leader.
Mississippi Workforce Investment Board Chairman Patrick Sullivan said Taylor’s appointment is emblematic of “the positive trajectory” seen over the past few years.
Taylor also served in workforce development roles for 15 years at East Mississippi Community College, the Alabama Community College System and Calhoun Community College, and she is also a past assistant director at Troy University’s Center for International Business and Economic Development.
She earned a doctorate in human capital development from the University of Southern Mississippi.
