Park Professionals: SheShe Taylor

PARK PROFESSIONALS

INSIDE OUTSIDE:

SheShe Taylor

WRITTEN BY Susy Schultz

When asked about her decade at the Chicago Park District, SheShe Taylor got down to business.

Because, really, that was Taylor’s job, minding everyone else’s business to elevate and promote merchants and venues on the city’s South Side.

“I think you could say I was an accidental government worker,” Taylor said. “And I would like to think, I hope, that I played a role in refreshing things at the Park District.”

And while she started in hospitality, Taylor went into business and community development at the Park District. She had to because she wouldn’t succeed without bringing others along with her.

When she took the job at the South Shore Cultural Center in 2012, she realized how many untapped opportunities there were for local Black-owned businesses. “That was a pivotal moment for me because it opened my eyes to how government can improve people’s lives and what role we could play and leveling the playing field for others.”

Taylor started as the special events manager at the South Shore Cultural Center in 2012, which she said she found overwhelmingly beautiful. “It has so much history, style, and potential.” And as a Chicago woman, she loved the history.

“I grew up in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. I went to high school at Hyde Park [Academy], then Kenwood Academy. I did undergraduate work at Howard University but finished my degree on Michigan Avenue at Roosevelt University. So, I’m Chicago through and through.”

Taylor explained: “I was tasked with doing community outreach to make sure that local businesses knew about the opportunities within our concession and catering programs,” Taylor said, adding,” I saw what it meant for restaurants in the neighborhood to be able to go into that space.”

She helped expand that access across the city to other venues and develop additional programs to open up opportunities for the community by working with the Chicago Parks Foundation.

“I was proud of being able to award the Al Fresco grants,” a Chicago Parks Foundation initiative. More than two dozen neighborhood entrepreneurs on the south and west sides were awarded grants to open concession stands to extend outdoor dining around the parks.

It was one of her last tasks when she left in 2022 as Deputy Director of Revenue. Today, she is the Director of Earned Income at the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

“I would not be in this role at the Obama Foundation without everything I learned in my jobs at the Park District regarding community engagement, equity and recreation,” Taylor said. “And everything I learned about myself from the Park District.”

ON THE RUN:

Her Park District work also connected her with the Chicago Parks Foundation and helped her find another passion. “The [Chicago Parks] Foundation enhances the park experience by raising funds through creative events. And they use the money to do such things as restorations and community outreach.”

For years, she volunteered at one of its fundraisers, its Chicago Marathon team, as they are a partner charity in the race.

“It became my favorite recreational event,” Taylor said. So much so, after volunteering for the event, she ran in it in 2019, even though she had never run more than a 5K race prior.

“I went from the Shamrock Shuffle to the Chicago Marathon,” Taylor laughed. She trained for 2020 as well, even though the race was canceled due to COVID, and reran it in 2021. And she was back at the starting line again this fall. She became a long-distance runner and now runs with her family, husband Mario, and their daughter Kennedy, 24, and son Damany, 27.

But what was she most proud of about her time at the Park District? The expansion of contracts and opportunities for new businesses?

Yes, she said, that was very important. But to her, people came first. “It was the mentoring, training, coaching and developing of my team,” she said. “Being able to see them grow in their career, that’s very important to me.

“And I am lucky to continue that work,” Taylor said. “When you are involved in hospitality, you build teams. But you also build communities for people to gather and learn. It’s what we are doing.”

The Chicago parks system is made up of over 600 parks, and it takes thousands of incredible park professionals to manage it all! The CPF is excited to highlight the people behind the scenes, both inside and outside, whose work impacts - or has been impacted by - our parks.

The Chicago parks system is made up of over 600 parks, and it takes thousands of incredible park professionals to manage it all! The CPF is excited to highlight the people behind the scenes, both inside and outside, whose work impacts - or has been impacted by - our parks.

CHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION

SheShe is a perfect example of how the parks are a career, not just a job, and that they extend beyond work - we’ve loved having SheShe run with us on Team ChiParks!

Susy Schultz is a freelance editor and writer who also chairs the Investigative Project on Race and Equity advisory council, a new nonprofit journalism and training outlet.