Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr. is a full professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, founding director of the UB Center for Urban Studies, and associate director of the UB Community Equity Research Institute.  He is an urban historian and planner with a background in the health sciences.  Taylor’s research focuses on urbanism and city-building under racial capitalism, with an emphasis on how the city-building process produces underdeveloped neighborhoods of color.  Taylor’s research also explores the relationship between underdeveloped neighborhoods and adverse health outcomes among African Americans. Additionally, Taylor studies Black social movements, Cuban life and culture, and university and Black community relationships. 

He works closely with Buffalo’s Black community on issues of neighborhood development, health inequities, and city building.  His planning practice centers on developing a new model of neighborhood development to counter the forces of accumulation by dispossession inherent in the neoliberal age of city building.  He is chair of the Board of Directors for the King Urban Life Center and a member of the African American Health Equity Task Force and consults with organizations and groups across the city.  He team teaches a course, Health in the Neighborhood for first-year medical students, at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  He works closely with the Anchors Institute Task Force.  Taylor has been citied in numerous publications nationally, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, CNN, and others.

• Ph.D. (Urban History) University at Buffalo
• M.A. (Urban History) University at Buffalo
• M.S. (Audiology) University of Tennessee
• B.S. (Speech Pathology) Tennessee A&I State University

Dr. Taylor teaches courses in Central City Revitalization and Race, Class, Gender and the City, and he teaches a course at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences entitled Health and the Neighborhood. Taylor also coordinates the Center for Urban Studies’ Urban Internship Program, which creates opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to become involved in neighborhood and urban projects across Erie County. Taylor co-directs a workshop series on Competencies in Health Equity for the UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He is the creator of The Cyberhood.

Dr. Taylor is a member of the Board of the Editors of Universities and Community Schools, published by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Vice-President of the King Urban Life Center Board of Directors and a member of the African American Task Force Health Equity.  

• 2022 Social Justice Award;
• 2022 Community Healer Award., National Community Healing Network;
• 2021 The Harder We Run: Report on the Status of Black Buffalo;
  
• 2019 William Wells Brown Award.  The East Side History Project Valuable Contribution to Preserving African American History in Our Community;
  
• 2018 The Debra E. Bernhardt Archives Award. Excellence in Documenting New York’s History.;
  
• 2018 Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award;
  
• 2016 Excellence in University Community Engagement Award: Sustained Contribution, University at Buffalo.;
• 2012 Lee Benson Activist Scholar Award, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania, November 12, 2012;  
• 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration—Buffalo District Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year.  The award is based on Taylor’s role in founding and developing the Allstate Minority & Women Emerging Entrepreneurs Program, one of the top minority & women business support programs in the United States;  
• 2008.   Outstanding Program Award—East Side Neighborhood Transformation Partnership (ESNTP).  The Community Development Society; 
•  2008 Time Magazine Quote of the Week on how Americans have lost sight of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message, January 21;   
• 2005 Distinguished Leadership, Michael J. Krasner Professional Planner Award,   American Planning Association, New York Upstate Chapter and Western New York Section;  
• 2005 Outstanding Planning Award, Planning Implementation, Conceptual Transit-Orientated Development Plan for the Allen-Medical Campus and Summer-Best Stations, Buffalo New York (David Gamble, Chan Krieger & Associates, Michael Pratt, Watts Engineers, Henry L. Taylor, Daniel Hess, Peter Lombardi, and Jane Humphreys, Center for Urban Studies, UB);  
• 2001  The Fannie Mae Foundation Award for the Best Action Research  Paper in Housing and Community Development at the 2001 Associate of Collegiate Schools of Planning National Conference; 
• 2000 YMCA Toast to Buffalo Award for Distinguished Leadership.