Joe Taylor has degrees in History from Black Hawk College, Moline, Illinois and Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois. He was a newspaper reporter and editor for ten years before accepting his first tourism position at the Galesburg Illinois Chamber of Commerce. He was employed the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau since its inception in 1990 and now serves at the Executive Director of the Evansville (IN) Convention & Visitors Bureau. He has always had a personal interest in hiking and trail advocacy, which has led him to visit more than 150 units of the National Park System. He co-hosted the National Trails Symposium in the Quad Cities in 2006, served on the board of American Trails, Inc. from 2006-2013, and served on the board of the American Discovery Trail Society from 2013 to 2016.