Taylor Nelms

I build teams and lead organizations in research strategy, design, and implementation.

I'm an anthropologist and ethnographer with expertise in money, technology, and consumer and cooperative finance. I have experience growing and guiding creative, cross-sector, public-facing collaborations in industry, academia, and nonprofits. I'm also a market researcher, consultant, strategist, writer, and speaker with a track record of helping organizations navigate uncertainty, build capacity, and grow with people-first, strengths-based, outcomes-oriented strategies.

I am the Senior Director of Market Insights & Advisory Services at the Filene Research Institute, a leading consumer finance think tank. In that capacity, I lead the organization's growing custom market research and consulting business. I previously led the original research arm of Filene, including supervising the organization's publication pipeline and partnerships with leading academics, credit unions and other financial services businesses, and nonprofit organizations.

I received my PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine, where I also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Anthropology and a Research Assistant at the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion. I'm a former Gates Cambridge Scholar and current Editor at Large (and former Editor in Chief) of the Journal of Cultural Economy.

You can read more about me and my work here: taylornelms.net