DETROIT
Iris Taylor, Detroit health care and education leader, dies at 74
Max ReinhartThe Detroit News
Updated July 30, 2026, 10:20 p.m. ET
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Iris A. Taylor, who was the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s sitting treasurer and a longtime top official at Detroit health care institutions, has died, the school district announced Thursday. She was 74
Taylor, a lifelong Detroiter, was first elected to the DPSCD school board in 2016 and had served more than 45 years in the health care field, officials said
She died peacefully on Thursday, July 30, 2026, surrounded by loved ones, according to her family
“Throughout her career, Dr. Taylor was a driving force behind this district’s progress — a former Board President, a respected healthcare executive, and a fierce champion for equitable opportunities in our schools,” DPSCD Board President Latrice McClendon and Superintendent Nikolai P. Vitti said in a joint statement. “Her guidance shaped decisions that will benefit generations of Detroit students, and her presence at the board table will be greatly missed.”
Mayor Mary Sheffield called Taylor one of the city’s “most dedicated and impactful servant leaders.”
“A Detroiter through-and-through her entire life, Dr. Taylor’s 45-year career in the health field undoubtedly helped to improve and to save countless Detroiters’ lives,” Sheffield said in a statement
Prior to joining the DPSCD board, Taylor spent more than four decades in the Detroit Medical Center health system, according to the Southeast Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Coalition (SEMPQIC), an organization she helped lead
Her career in health care included work as a practitioner and educator before she served as president and CEO of Detroit Receiving Hospital and University Health Center, as well as Detroit Institute for Children
In 2000, when she was the chief nursing officer for the DMC, she suffered a stroke while attending a University of Michigan football game in Ann Arbor. When she initially felt acute chest pains, she had a friend drive her the 40-some miles back to Detroit for treatment
“If I was going to need a heart procedure I want to go where I knew I would get the best medical care — at my hospital,” Taylor told The Detroit News in 2001
In 1996, she took a two-year sabbatical to focus on charitable involvement and build a new, 2,800-square-foot house near Belle Isle
Taylor helped lead the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as director of nursing for the Detroit Health Department, Sheffield said
She also was an adjunct professor at WSU’s College of Nursing and School of Medicine. A Wayne State publication said her work focused on the interaction of omics and social factors that contribute to health disparities among minority populations. She also studied the effects of lead poisoning in Flint on residents’ genes
Taylor was a graduate of Detroit’s Central High School. She received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from Wayne State University, and completed a management fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business
She won election to the DPSCD board in 2016 and served as president during her first term, as the district was emerging from state-appointed emergency financial management
She lost a bid for reelection in 2020 but won back a seat on the board two years later. In January, she was elected board treasurer
Former Mayor Mike Duggan said Taylor had been his close friend for more than 20 years and said she made “made an enormous impact in helping save the Detroit Medical Center, rebuilding the Detroit Public Schools after their return to an elected School Board, and improving the lives of Detroiters in her leadership in the Detroit Health Department.”
Her impact as a member and past president of the DPSCD “cannot be understated,”
“She was a true leader and a steady hand that helped make the great progress being made by the District and by its students, possible,” the mayor said. “She did all of this seeking no fanfare, only to serve.”
DPSCD officials asked the community to respect the privacy of Taylor’s family in light of her death and said details regarding memorial arrangements would be announced in the future
