J.F. (Jeff) Taylor, Jr.

Hello and thanks for visiting.  I’m J.F. Taylor, Jr.  My friends call me Jeff.  I am the Director of Economic Development in Appomattox County.  I'm looking forward to this wonderful new challenge in my life.  You've been there, right? No?!?  Well, it's a very important place.  The course of American history changed there in April 1865.  Come visit Appomattox and the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and just maybe we'll have lunch together.  Also save the date - April 2015 - the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.  Sesquicentennial means 150th.  This is a major anniversary in our local, state and American history.  I'll have more as the time nears.

Here’s just a little more about me.  I’m a radically conservative liberal independent, or maybe that should be a radically liberal conservative independent, who feels stuck in the middle most of the time.  I’m also a real Optimist who believes life was much easier when it was just about Dick, Jane and Spot.

I’m a tech savvy guy with many years of experience in broadcasting, marketing and public relations, communications, website content management and social media.  I’m a former TV news director, news anchor and reporter.  I’ve been a narrator for many projects, most recently the 2008 Governor’s Arts Awards for Virginia presented by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.

In the early 1990s I was the first full-time employee for Virginia's Region 2000, what was then a regional public/private economic development partnership.  That partnership has now grown to serve the best 2,000 square miles of Virginia in so many other ways.

For the last several years I have been the Moderator/Host of “Shaping the World: Conversations on Democracy” Series Public Television Program and Live Performance for The Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest.  I’m a James River Batteau & Colonial Era reenactor.  And I’ve done a little acting recently in the independent film "So Falls the Shadow" a Southern gothic horror film as "Fred" (click to see the trailer), also as an extra in "A Little Closer" and on projects for the CW Network and the Discovery Investigations channel.  I've also been in some friends' film shorts such as "Lunch With A Prophet" (click to see the film).

Here are some links to more information about me:

Have a great day and thanks for visiting!