Taylor McCabe-Juhnke, RSC Executive Director, Ex-Officio board member, Galesburg, IL

Taylor McCabe-Juhnke was named Executive Director for the Rural Schools Collaborative on July 1, 2021. Taylor is a Kansas native who hails from a long line of small-town educators.

Taylor was an early supporter of the Rural Schools Collaborative, serving as a Strategic Planning Fellow for RSC during the summer of 2016. While assisting RSC, Taylor was largely responsible for the planning and coordination of the Rural Teacher Corps Stakeholders’ Summit Visioning Meeting in Mitchell, South Dakota, which convened 75 participants from nine different states. That event has continued to shape RSC’s ongoing work with rural teacher preparation efforts from throughout the nation.

Taylor then took a position with the Seattle-based United Way of King County, where she managed a number of community partnership programs. She then assumed a management role with Seattle Children’s Hospital before re-joining the RSC team.

Taylor’s public service work began with the Madison Audubon Society in Wisconsin, where she initially coordinated volunteers before spearheading the communications strategy. Prior to her Wisconsin work, Taylor graduated from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas.

Taylor is a passionate people-person, fierce education advocate, and self-proclaimed nature nerd. She believes there is a unique magic in the way small town communities care for each other, and can’t wait to hear about your education hopes and dreams.

When she is not at home with a cup of coffee and a cat on her lap, you can find Taylor on extended nature tromps or happily losing at game nights.