President's Office

W. Taylor Reveley, IV became the 26^th president of Longwood University in 2013.

Taylor Reveley IV began his term as Longwood University’s 26th president in 2013, with deep ties to the University. Over the past century, members of his family have been leaders on the faculty and Board of Visitors as well as devoted students and alumni. Since his tenure began, Longwood has secured more than $1 billion in gifts, grants, and state and federal funding. As president, Reveley’s principal areas of focus have included:

• Championing Longwood’s distinctive core curriculum – Civitae – focused on citizen leadership, which began in 2018 with support from the Teagle Foundation. In 2023, the Washington Post acclaimed Civitae as an idea that “can help repair democracy”.
• Fostering the University’s partnership begun in 2015 with the Moton Museum, the national historic landmark that neighbors Longwood’s campus and honors Barbara Johns and the student Civil Rights movement in Prince Edward County. In 2024, U.S. officials advanced the Moton Museum for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• Leading innovation in campus planning and architecture focused on new urbanism and building joint momentum with Farmville, the nation’s first two-college town. In 2023, Traditional Building magazine hailed Longwood’s range of new construction for its “timeless styles, knitting campus and town more closely.”
• Maintaining college affordability, through the lowest average annual tuition increases of any Virginia public university.
• Enhancing the University’s culture of philanthropy, especially regarding scholarship giving and student support. Longwood’s endowment has more than doubled since Reveley’s tenure began, and the University is now among the top 100 public institutions nationally in endowment per student.
• Strengthening Longwood’s civic role, as Virginia’s third-oldest public university, and one of the hundred-oldest colleges and universities in America. In 2016 Longwood hosted the U.S. Vice-Presidential Debate.

A Richmond native and enrolled Cherokee citizen, Reveley graduated with honors from Princeton University, where he majored in classics and was a member of the football team. He has served on the NCAA’s Division-I Board of Directors, as President of the Big South Conference, and as Chair of Virginia’s Council of Presidents. He received a master’s degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary and a J.D. from the University of Virginia. He began his career as an attorney with the national law firm Hunton, focusing on finance, healthcare, and hospital governance.

Immediately prior to his appointment as president of Longwood, Reveley served as managing director of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, a nonpartisan institute focused on the U.S. presidency, policy and political history. A scholar of the U.S. presidency, he had previously served as coordinating attorney for the National War Powers Commission, co-chaired by former U.S. Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher.

President Reveley is a third-generation college president. His grandfather, W. Taylor Reveley II, was president of Hampden-Sydney College from 1963-1977. His father, W. Taylor Reveley III, was president of the College of William & Mary from 2008-2018. In 2025, UVA Press released How College Presidents Succeed: Lessons in Leadership from Three Generations of Reveleys by political scientist Michael Nelson.

President Reveley’s wife, Marlo, is a technology entrepreneur, and they have two children.