Keynote Speaker: Mikki Taylor
MIKKI TAYLOR
Editor-at-Large, ESSENCE Magazine
A media veteran for more than three decades, Mikki Taylor is the Editor-at-Large at ESSENCE Magazine, the nation’s premier lifestyle publication for African-American women and the president of Mikki Taylor Enterprises, LLC, a strategic branding, consulting and communications company. She has devoted a lifetime to helping women micro-manage their inner and outer beauty and helping audiences to own their lives to the fullest. Today Taylor, who for 30 years served as the magazine’s groundbreaking beauty & cover director, contributes to its distinctive cover concepts, collaborates on photo sessions, as well as lends her unique signature to marketing events and special celebrity projects with Essence Communications, Inc.
Taylor has offered beauty and lifestyle advice and critiques on media outlets such as: The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, TODAY, The Insider, The Early Show, NBC Nightly News, EXTRA, Inside Edition, E! Entertainment Television, CNN, TV Guide Channel, VHI, Style Network, WE-TV, CBS 2 Morning News, the Style Network, Pure Oxygen, BET and TV One. Viewers also received a weekly dose of Taylor’s positive influence on VH-1’s highest rated debut series Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, which premiered to more than five million viewers. Each week, Taylor served as the voice of reason and compassion as she imparted to the women honest, valuable information, insight and tips to help the contestants—and the women who watched the show—live a better, more productive, pride-filled life. She also served as the host of the TV One series Makeover Manor.
One of Taylor’s most treasured experiences was a trip to South Africa, at the special invitation of Oprah Winfrey, where she served as an instructor to 149 girls ages 12-14, at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls as part of its Arts Workshop 2007. Taylor taught a course called Celebrating Your Unique Beauty & Style, a three-part workshop that addressed practical and timeless elements of social graces and the essential basics of inner and outer beauty, and Your Best Shot, a session which taught the skills to insure a phenomenal photograph.
In 2007, the Black Retail Action Group (BRAG) honored Taylor at its 37th annual scholarship and awards dinner, acknowledging those who have penetrated and embraced the world of beauty in a significant way both in front and behind the scenes. She is also a four-time recipient of the CEBA Award, a former industry award acknowledging excellence in African-American media, as well as the winner of the Associated Black Charities Image Makers Award.
Another prized accomplishment of Taylor was organizing an annual beauty event where proceeds from the sale of products benefitted homeless and underprivileged women through the Cosmetic Executive Women’s (CEW) Women In Need, a nonprofit organization that services shelters in and around New York City.
In April 2003, Ballantine Books/One World published Taylor’s book, Self-Seduction: Your Ultimate Path to Inner and Outer Beauty. This lavishly illustrated book aimed at women of color explores the balance between spiritual and physical nourishment that is the key to true beauty and features women of all shades, shapes, and sizes. In November 2011, Simon & Schuster will publish Taylor’s next word on style: Commander in Chic, Every Woman’s Guide to Managing Her Style Like a First Lady.
