Board of Directors

Michael R. Taylor

Michael R. Taylor joined Resources for the Future (RFF) on June 1, 2000, as a Senior Fellow and Director of RFF’s Center for Risk Management. The Center conducts multidisciplinary research on natural resource and environmental issues, with emphasis on evaluating how government programs and policies are working to achieve their goals and developing and analyzing proposals for new policies and programs. In addition to guiding the Center’s future activities, Taylor is developing a research program on the policy and institutional issues affecting the success of the global food and agricultural system in theareas of food security in developing countries, food safety as a global concern, and the natural resource and environmental sustainability of agriculture.

Prior to coming to RFF, Taylor served in government, practiced law in Washington, and worked in private industry. He was Administrator of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service from 1994 to 1996, Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the Food and Drug Administration from 1991 to 1994, and an FDA staff lawyer and Executive Assistant to the FDA Commissioner from 1976 to 1981. He practiced food and drug law and was a partner in the law firm of King & Spalding for ten years and most recently was Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Company.

Taylor is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and a member of the Board of Trustees of RESOLVE, a nonprofit environmental and public health mediation and dispute resolution organization. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia and his B.A. in political science at Davidson College.