The USC Price School of Public Policy recently received two gifts totaling $4 million, supporting efforts to attract faculty talent.
Maribeth Borthwick, a USC alum, and her husband, Hal Borthwick, donated $3 million in honor of Professor Emeritus David Sloane, who recently retired. The gift will establish the Dr. David C. Sloane Chair in Urban Planning, an endowed faculty position to support a distinguished scholar whose work advances the study of history and innovation, the built environment and the evolving relationship between communities and the spaces they inhabit.
Chris Taylor, an alum of the Master of Real Estate and Development (MRED) program, and his wife, Jennifer, donated $1 million to create a new endowed professorship. The Jennifer and Chris Taylor Professorship aims to bridge Urban Planning and Real Estate Development, fields in which the couple have achieved professional success.
The generous donations are part of the One Price campaign to raise $100 million by the time the school celebrates its centennial in 2029. The funding will expand student opportunities, accelerate groundbreaking research, strengthen faculty excellence, and advance the strategic priorities that prepare the next generation of leaders to build stronger communities around the world.
“We are deeply grateful for these generous contributions and energized by what they will make possible—from recruiting exceptional faculty to advancing research that strengthens public institutions and improves people’s lives,” said USC Price School Dean Christopher Boone. “These gifts are a powerful validation of the impact USC Price has made over nearly a century, as well as an investment in our vision for the next 100 years.”
Below are details about the donations, their backstories and their impact.
The Legacy of Washington – and Sloane
About a decade ago, a former dean of the USC Price School walked into Professor David Sloane’s office with an unusual piece of trivia.
“Did you know that George Washington was a surveyor?” former Dean Jack Knott asked.
Sloane, an expert in urban planning and history, obviously knew. The trivia, though, was really an opening to ask Sloane to head to Mount Vernon, Washington’s former home and explore a possible partnership with the nonprofit that preserves the estate.
The visit went well. Later, Sloane met Maribeth Borthwick (USC ’73), Vice Regent for California of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the non-profit that preserves and maintains the Mount Vernon estate. A gift by Borthwick ultimately established the George Washington Leadership Lecture Series, a semi-annual event exploring Washington’s life, legacy, and achievements – and how they relate to current events.
Sloane served as the founding moderator, hosting discussions with the likes of historian Kevin Starr, journalist Mara Liasson and NASA Chief Scientist James Green.
“We tend to think of Washington as a head on a quarter, or just the first president. In reality, he was the leader of the military during the revolution. He was an extraordinary farmer. He’s a really interesting politician. He and his wife were socialites,” Sloane said. “There were a lot of possible ways to talk about him, and the idea was that the lecture series would try to think about how the legacy of George Washington connected to the reality of today.”
The series also strengthened the relationship between Maribeth Borthwick and her alma mater, as well as the Price School’s bond with Mount Vernon. Those relationships motivated Maribeth and Hal Borthwick to donate $3 million to establish the Dr. David C. Sloane Chair in Urban Planning.
“I can’t emphasize enough how pivotal David has been in forming our attachment to the USC Price School and to making the partnership between Mount Vernon and USC viable,” Borthwick wrote in an email. “David led from the start, was collaborative, creative, engaging, interesting and caring of his department, his fellow professors, his students and his donors. It is our privilege to be able to give to honor David.”
Endowed chairs represent one of the highest forms of academic recognition. They ensure that leading thinkers have the resources to pursue bold research, inspire students, and contribute meaningfully to society.
“Having an endowed chair is an essential part of developing and retaining a strong academic faculty,” Sloane said. “It’s more than that, though. In some sense, it’s a symbol of the commitment of the school and the university to the department and to the field of urban planning.”
“It’s really a great honor,” Sloane added.
Marrying Real Estate and Urban Planning
Chris and Jennifer Taylor love cities.
The husband-and-wife team usually visit a city when they go on vacation, spending much of their trip strolling the streets and admiring the architecture, small businesses and urban design.
They do this for fun, even though they sort of do it for work, too.
Chris Taylor (MRED ’91) is a Managing Partner and Chief Credit Officer for the debt business at BGO, a leading global real estate investment manager. Jennifer Taylor has worked on economic development and urban revitalization in New York City, London and Los Angeles.
Their shared passion for real estate and urban planning will soon be reflected in a new named professorship at the USC Price School. The couple has committed $1 million to establish the Jennifer and Chris Taylor Professor position in the fields of Urban Planning and/or Real Estate Development, with the preference of a faculty position that bridges the two fields.
“One of the things we really appreciate about the Price School is that it has both disciplines in the same school, creating greater opportunities for collaboration between the two,” Chris Taylor said. “Education is important to us. It’s played a major part of our lives, connecting us [at Columbia University]. And we are both passionate about real estate and urban planning, so this feels like a natural fit for us.”
It’s important to have a faculty position that can further connect the two fields of study, said Associate Professor Geoff Boeing, Chair of the USC Price School’s Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis.
“Urban planning and real estate development are deeply intertwined,” Boeing said. “Housing affordability, urban sustainability, and local quality of life and accessibility to daily living needs all depend on combinations of planning and development.”
In addition to connecting the areas of study, the Taylors are looking forward to opportunities to get more involved with USC now that they live in Southern California. Chris credits the Price School for introducing him to the real estate industry. Jennifer has enjoyed working with Price School interns and alums, including one of her husband’s former professors. The couple plans to pre-pay their original estate donation during their lifetime, to “enjoy it now.”
“We feel very fortunate to be in this position, and we want to enjoy seeing its impact and build a closer connection with USC and the MRED program,” Chris Taylor said. “This is a fun and hopefully impactful way to start getting more involved.”
