
A native of Houston, Dr. Welch-Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree at what is now Prairie View A&M University. Soon after graduation, she took a position as administrative assistant to the president of Langston University in Oklahoma.
Dr. Welch-Taylor later obtained a master’s degree in elementary education from Tennessee State University and a doctorate in elementary education supervision at George Peabody College, now part of Vanderbilt University.
She served as visiting professor of education at Texas Southern University in Houston and Prairie View A&M University. In 1969, Dr. Welch-Taylor moved to Washington, D.C., to become an associate professor of general studies at Washington Technical Institute, one of the institutions that eventually merged to form the University of the District of Columbia.

