Locality
Occupation
Biography
Sheila Bowen Taylor grew up in the St. Juliens Creek community of Chesapeake (formerly Norfolk County) near the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where her father worked as an electrician. After earning a degree in physics from Norfolk State College (now Norfolk State University), she went on to study nuclear physics at Old Dominion University and earned a Master’s in Organizational Leadership and Administration at Central Michigan University. During the 1970s, Taylor worked as a structural engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding. In 1981, she became the second woman and the first black woman hired as a nuclear engineer at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, working in the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department on submarines, surface ships, and aircraft carriers. There, she helped organize the Hampton Roads chapter of the Society of Women Engineers to help connect women in the engineering field. Taylor continues to mentor young people and early career professionals and promotes the importance of diversity in engineering and the sciences. Described as “the brains of the family” by her equally successful sister Sharon Bowen, chair of the New York Stock Exchange, Taylor is adamant that representation matters, and she echoes her sister’s mantra, “If you can see it, you can be it.”
2023 Strong Men and Women in Virginia History honoree, Library of Virginia and Dominion Energy.