[1] Taylor graduated summa cum laude in 1973 from East Tennessee State University, and completed a Ph.D. in physics in 1978 at Clemson University.
After working as a visiting assistant professor at Denison University, she became an assistant professor at Jackson State University in 1979, also working as a visiting scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
She moved to Miami University Hamilton in 1984,[2] and retired as a professor emerita in 2018.
[3] Taylor's books include:[2] Taylor was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 1999, after a nomination from the APS Forum on Education, "for designing educational materials used effectively by K-12 science teachers, and particularly for developing and publicizing the physics of toys".
[5] In 1997 the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) gave her their Homer L. Dodge Distinguished Service Citation,[2] and in 2014 she was named to the inaugural class of AAPT Fellows.