Iris Alice Taylor

Iris Taylor (died July 30, 2026, at 74) was a longtime Detroit healthcare leader and an at-large member of the Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education, serving as board treasurer and a former board president. A product of Detroit Public Schools, she graduated from Central High School and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing from Wayne State University in 1974 and 1978, later receiving a doctorate in 1996. She began her career in 1975 as a head staff nurse at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital and University Health Center, became chief nursing officer and senior vice president of patient care at the Detroit Medical Center in 1999, served as president of Harper Hospital and Hutzel Women's Hospital before leading Detroit Receiving Hospital in 2004, became DMC's chief business officer in 2010, and retired from the medical center in 2015. In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan appointed her director of nursing for the Detroit Health Department. She was president of the first elected DPSCD board in 2017, lost reelection in 2020, won again in 2022, and chaired the DPSCD Foundation beginning in 2024. She filed to run for reelection to the school board on July 21, 2026 and died a week later on July 30, 2026; the Wayne County Clerk's unofficial candidate list records her as disqualified from the November 3, 2026 ballot.