Ann C. Phillips Named 2018-2019 Leader in Residence

Currently a board member of the Center for Climate and Security, Ms. Phillips has had a rich career in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare officer, serving on destroyers, aircraft carriers, amphibious, and replenishment ships. Ms. Phillips’s involvement in every facet of surface warfare included commanding the USS MUSTIN (DDG 89) and Destroyer Squadron TWO EIGHT, and Expeditionary Strike Group TWO – which encompassed all the Amphibious Expeditionary Forces on the East Coast of the United States.

When not at sea, Phillips worked at the Pentagon managing resources for the Surface Navy as Deputy Director and Director of Surface Warfare Division. From 2009-2012 she served on the Chief of Naval Operations’ Climate Change Task Force, and Energy Task Force, where she was instrumental in developing and implementing climate change adaptation for the Navy. Since her retirement, Ms. Phillips has focused her energies on climate change and its impact on national security.

Chatham Hall is fortunate to welcome Ms. Phillips to campus as the school adopts the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which include climate action; life on land; peace, justice, and strong institutions; as well as partnerships for the goals. Ms. Phillips’s wealth of knowledge on questions of national security and her work as a private consultant on matters of climate change as they relate to defense of the United States, will engender deep and thoughtful conversation on topics in which Chatham Hall students have expressed great interest and which impact their lives on a daily basis. Much of Ms. Phillips’s work has been focused rather locally to Chatham Hall, as she chaired the Infrastructure Working Group for the Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Pilot Planning Project, which was convened by Old Dominion University.

Assistant Head of School for Academics Martha Griswold commented, “Rear Admiral Phillips’s visit dovetails so well with the interests of Chatham Hall’s students. Their concern for the sustainability of the world in which they live will be addressed from an angle to which they may not have given much thought - and her focus on coastal Virginia highlights a problem close to home.”

 

Ms. Phillips will visit Chatham Hall on January 16 and 17, delivering a keynote address on Wednesday, January 16. Further information will be made available closer to the event. For an article written by Ms. Phillips, click here.