Shree Taylor

Shree Taylor

Executive Director, Data and AI Government Civilian
Elder Research

Bio

Dr. Shree W. Taylor leads the Data and Artificial Intelligence, Government Civilian team at Elder Research, a MANTECH company. Formally trained as a computational mathematician, she has been delighted to create a rewarding non-traditional career centered around mathematics, business and leadership. She has served clients in the government, private and non-profit sectors for over 20 years, and aims to serve her customers and stakeholders with excellence while focusing on their mission. Dr. Taylor loves to develop leaders; she is a genuine, empathetic and adaptive leader who coaches her team to not only achieve their team goals, but also their individual goals.

Dr. Taylor earned her BS and MS in mathematics from Clark Atlanta University, her PhD in applied and computational mathematics from North Carolina State University and recently completed the Executive Master’s in Leadership Program from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

ELIXIR: The Model for Leading Highly Technical Teams

Leading highly technical teams presents a distinct leadership challenge: the problems that determine success are often no longer technical. Organizations frequently promote their strongest engineers, analysts, or data scientists into leadership roles because of their technical excellence. Yet once in leadership, the work changes. The role shifts from solving complex technical problems to aligning people, defining priorities, and enabling others to do their best work in support of the client’s mission.

Technical professionals thrive on autonomy, deep expertise, and rigorous problem solving. However, these same strengths can create challenges for the team and ultimately the client. Today, client environments are commonly defined by complexity, uncertainty, and rapid change. When these scenarios meet, the results can be unintentional silos between specialists, communication gaps with stakeholders, and teams that struggle to connect technical work to the mission.

At times, it can feel that a magic potion is needed to help a team shift focus from individual contribution to creating a focused solution with impact.

In this session, Dr. Taylor will introduce her ELIXIR model; a framework that highlights key competencies for leaders of high-performing, innovative and technical teams. Leadership competencies prioritize communication, community, and a shared purpose, and transforms individual technical capability into real-world impact.

Through a combination of compelling stories, research insights, and a unique visual model, this session highlights the specific leadership competencies that can transform individual expertise into collective results. Attendees will gain practical strategies for creating a team who brings mission-driven value to their client’s most challenging problems.

Professional / Leadership