Atlanta nonprofit leader Chuck Taylor joins FIRE’s Advisory Council

FIRE is excited to announce that longtime nonprofit leader and board member of NPR/PBS affiliate WABE Atlanta, Chuck Taylor, joined FIRE’s Advisory Council, where he will help guide our organization as we defend the civil liberties of all Americans.

Currently CEO of the Atlanta-based real estate firm HT Group, Chuck comes to FIRE with more than 20 years of experience in public media, serving on the board of directors of WABE from 1998 until 2021 when he was elected a life board member, and currently serving as chair of the WABE Foundation. He is also a former trustee and currently a President’s Council member of the NPR Foundation in Washington D.C., and was the founding chair of the Fulton County Public Art program and the oversight committee of the Office of Buildings in Atlanta.

“We grew WABE from a small market station playing mostly classical music to a top 10 market for talk and news radio that has the most diverse audience of any NPR station in the country,” he told FIRE. “I’m extremely proud of it.”

Making those changes proved controversial at the time because a number of people in Atlanta really, really liked classical music.

“At one point there was a Facebook page dedicated to finding dirt on me,” Chuck says of his work turning WABE into an all news and information radio station, although he notes the station still broadcasts classical music at another frequency. “While a group of us were responsible for the changes, I was perceived as the public face of the effort and there was a time when I was persona non grata in some communities.”

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Though free speech hasn’t been the primary focus of Chuck’s civil liberties work — he spent many years on the boards of a variety of Jewish civil rights and defense organizations — he’s always been interested in free speech advocacy. A graduate of Brown University (class of 1981), Chuck says, “Although Brown has done a good job on free speech lately, it is where political correctness started.”

“College is a place to be exposed to difficult ideas, not a place to be shielded from them,” he adds. “I believe that to my core.”

After graduating from Brown, Chuck went on to get his J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 1984, where he has been an adjunct professor since 1996.

“I’ve been a fan of FIRE for a long time,” he added, deciding he wanted to become more involved after seeing legislatures and courts suppress freedom of speech in the name of protecting religious liberty. “One of my issues has always been religious freedom, and freedom of speech has become a new battleground for religious freedom.”

Chuck’s resume in nonprofit advocacy is so extensive we can’t possibly cover everything in one post. In addition to his decades of experience in public media, Chuck also founded the public art program for the Fulton County Arts Council and was responsible for gifting to that program one of the most important Sol LeWitt sculptures in the world: “54 Columns,” a massive installation of 54 concrete pillars on 20,000 square feet of park space in Atlanta. 

“Everyone has gotten so polarized, it is difficult to find an organization that is ambivalent to partisan politics and interested solely in such an important single key issue.”

Currently, he is also a board member of the Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, where he is the board secretary. Chuck is also on the regional advisory boards of the New Israel Fund, has served as vice president of the board of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, and was a member of the Georgia Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

“Chuck has a unique ability to connect with all levels of an organization, from entry-level staffers to the executive team,” said Bridget Glackin, FIRE's senior vice president of development. “Bringing with him decades of experience in relationship-driven philanthropy and a principled commitment to the power of academic freedom and free speech, Chuck will be a valuable addition to FIRE's Advisory Council.”

“I love what FIRE is doing,” he said. “Everyone has gotten so polarized, it is difficult to find an organization that is ambivalent to partisan politics and interested solely in such an important single key issue.”

Chuck is an avid pilot, sailor, skier, and wine aficionado. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Ansley Park in Atlanta with their dog, Hero, and ever-growing art and wine collections. Their children, Alix and Miles, both graduated from Brown University and live in California.

When asked for a line to sum up his background in nonprofit leadership, Chuck quoted Mark Twain: “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”