Ed Taylor w/ Enrique Cerna, THE POWER OF THE RIVER

Ed Taylor, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the University of Washington, visits the store for his new book The Power of the River, a memoir steeped in the universal truths and human pursuits of love, grace, forgiveness, and continued growth. He is joined by veteran journalist Enrique Cerna.

From a former Gonzaga basketball player and current University of Washington Dean and Vice Provost comes a memoir steeped in the universal truths and human pursuits of love, grace, forgiveness, and continued growth.

Ed Taylor takes readers on a journey from Lompoc, California through a childhood marked with loss but grounded in the love and support of family and community, to a singular moment that changed everything for a boy set up by the system to be a cog in the machine.

But Taylor’s story is only beginning on the day Gonzaga University offers him a full ride: Faced with questions every young Black man on a basketball scholarship has heard—questions like “Do you even belong here?” and “Do you really think you can cut it?”—Taylor answers by examining himself, everything that brought him to this place, and all that he hopes to bring to the world, and by rising to the ever-increasing challenges he sets for himself.

In The Power of the River, Ed Taylor offers perspective on his journey as it relates to the larger, human one we’re all on together, inviting us to celebrate the many individuals—family members, teachers, coaches, colleagues, friends, and chance acquaintances—who lifted him up and taught him along the way and reminding us that even while we are responsible for our impacts on those in our lives, we all deserve some measure of grace.

Dr. Edward Taylor has been a friend, a colleague a partner, a son, a father, a teacher, a student, and a fisher on the river of life, and here he shares what he knows of its power.

Edward Taylor is Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the University of Washington, where he oversees programs that connect students to the breadth and depth of learning at UW. Dr. Taylor grew up as one of four children in the small town of Lompoc, California, raised by a devoted single mother whose strength and determination shaped his life. A basketball scholarship opened the door to higher education, leading him to Gonzaga University, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in sociology and psychology and later a master’s degree in psychology. After several years working as a counselor, he pursued doctoral study and earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Washington. In addition to his role as Vice Provost and Dean, Dr. Taylor is a professor in the University of Washington’s College of Education. His teaching and research have explored comparative education in the United States and South Africa, the moral dimensions of education, integrative approaches to learning, and the responsibilities of leadership. Across his writing, teaching, and public work, he returns to enduring questions of equity, ethics, belonging, the history of education, and the human purposes of learning. Throughout his career at UW, Dr. Taylor has remained committed to widening access to opportunity and to helping schools and universities become places where students experience genuine belonging. His scholarship includes co-edited volumes on race and education, race theory, race in the United States, and the ways university faculty transform their undergraduate teaching. He has also written numerous journal articles and op-eds. Beyond the university, Dr. Taylor’s work is deeply rooted in community. He has served as a founding board member of Rainier Scholars and Rainier Prep, and as a board member of the Seattle Foundation, Gonzaga University, College Spark Washington, the Rwanda Girls Initiative, and the Mind & Life Institute—an organization inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama that brings modern science and Tibetan traditions of wisdom into conversation. He has been part of the same book group for twenty-five years and, when the moment allows, is known to cast a fly line where the rivers of the Pacific Northwest carry their quiet wisdom. His memoir, The Power of the River, was published by Hinton Publishing Company in April 2026.

Enrique Cerna is a veteran journalist who worked in Seattle media for more than four decades. Cerna worked for 23 years at Cascade Public Media’s KCTS 9 and retired in February 2018 from his role as senior correspondent. Prior to joining KCTS in 1995, he worked as a reporter, producer and host for KOMO Radio and Television and KING Television. Cerna has earned ten Northwest regional Emmy awards. In May 2022 he was inducted into the Hall of Achievement at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Since March 2020, he has been a member of the WSU Board of Regents. He is also serves on the boards of KUOW radio, and the Seattle Chapter of the National Hispanic Journalist’s Association.

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