Angela King Taylor has been named the University of Missouri’s vice chancellor for student affairs after a national search, MU President Mun Choi announced Wednesday.
King Taylor has served as an interim vice chancellor since June 2023 and will begin the permanent role immediately.
As she steps into the role, King Taylor said she plans to focus on enhancing student belonging, co-curricular learning and retention through high-impact practices.
“When families are deciding whether or not they’re coming to this college, they really want to know ‘what am I getting out of this experience?’” King Taylor said. “Aside from a premier student experience, I want students to be able to articulate how those experiences shaped them and helped them beyond Mizzou.”
She believes MU provides a hands-on experience for a university of its size and wants to ensure students are engaged both academically and socially.
“Vice Chancellor King Taylor is an incredible champion of student success with a proven commitment to excellence,” Choi said in a news release.
King Taylor began working at MU in 2021 as associate dean of students. She has focused on student engagement and well-being. As interim vice chancellor, she led initiatives, such as the Healthy Community Initiative and the TIGERS learning framework, aimed at improving student belonging and success.
“I am honored to serve as vice chancellor for student affairs,” King Taylor said in the release. “Our students are at the heart of everything we do.”
King Taylor has more than 20 years of experience in student and faculty affairs, with previous roles at Syracuse University, Loyola University Chicago and the University of Kansas.
A key priority for King Taylor is implementing recommendations from the Healthy Communities Coalition, which has spent the past two years researching evidence-based strategies to support student health and well-being.
“Over the next year, we get to focus on implementation,” she said. “That piece is exciting — partnering with our campus to think more about what evidence-based strategies we might be able to implement.”
King Taylor also emphasized her commitment to ensuring MU remains a welcoming and inclusive environment, despite broader tensions that might challenge certain student organizations or programs.
“Our goal is to be student-centered and to really focus on the needs of the student,” she said. “This feels like a time of uncertainty for our students, and we are honoring that, but also continuing to provide the services that we know are going to help them create that sense of belonging.”
King Taylor steps into the role following the departure of former vice chancellor of student affairs Bill Stackman in the summer of 2023, according to previous Missourian reporting.
