Trustee Andrea Taylor

Andrea L. Taylor, director of North America community affairs for Microsoft Corporation, a former United Nations delegate and longtime summer resident of Oak Bluffs, has been named a trustee of Boston University.

A 1968 graduate of BU, Ms. Taylor sets strategy for and manages Microsoft’s community technology skills program and Elevate America, a public-private partnership that offers free e-Learning courses. Before joining Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., in June 2006, Ms. Taylor was the founding director of the media fund at the Ford Foundation, managing $50 million in support of global media projects, including Sesame Street in China and South Africa. She began her career as a journalist, working for the Boston Globe, Bay State Banner and WGBH.

She is the daughter of the late Della Brown Hardman of Oak Bluffs.