Taylor C. Nelms

As an anthropologist, Taylor sees the chance to join Filene’s research team as the perfect opportunity to fuel his passion for understanding people and culture. Taylor is dedicated to building a groundbreaking research agenda—and to translating that research for consumer finance professionals, policymakers, and the public to see what kinds of positive impacts it can have. When it comes to finance, Taylor’s method is to take a broad view across time and space, positioning new developments in social and historical context.

Before joining Filene, Taylor worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California, Irvine, where he also received his PhD in Anthropology. He worked previously with the Institute of Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion at UC Irvine, and he now serves as Editor-at-Large (former Editor-in-Chief) of the Journal of Cultural Economy. Taylor’s relationships with Filene can be traced back to the 2015 Emerging Payments and Communities: Reimagining Trust and Mutual Finance research report, which surveyed the beginnings of the mobile financial services revolution for credit unions.

Taylor grew up in Southern Illinois near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. After graduating from The Ohio State University, Taylor received his MPhil from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates-Cambridge Scholar. Taylor has spent time, most notably, in Ecuador, where he conducted ethnographic fieldwork on the so-called “solidarity economy” with urban market vendors and family and neighborhood savings groups.

Taylor is excited to put the collaborative and cooperative principles of the credit union movement into practice at Filene, researching new trends in consumer finance, technology, and community development.

Taylor loves spending time with his family, including his son Campbell and his cat Oberon (named after A Midsummer Night’s Dream, not the beer). You can catch them reading, exploring Madison’s parks and restaurants, or listening to the Atlanta baseballers on the radio. See more of Taylor on his website, LinkedIn, and Twitter.