Reverend Jeannette J. PHILLIPS

1933 - 2023

PHILLIPS, The Reverend Jeannette J. A powerful force for change in community health care, died on Tuesday, September 12, surrounded by loved ones, after a lifetime of distinguished

service. A visionary leader, pastor, Community Health Center network founder and the matriarch of a large and growing family, she helped guide the emergence of patient-led community health care in New York State from its roots in the civil rights movement into the modern era.

Rev. Phillips opened the Peekskill Area Ambulatory Health Care Center in 1975, along with three other African American Founding Mothers, the late Mary Woods, Willie Mae Jackson and Pearl Woods, to provide access to health care for their community. With the other founders and long-time CEO, Anne Kauffman Nolon, she grew the Peekskill Health Center, now known as Sun River Health, into one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Center networks in the United States, serving patients across the Hudson Valley, New York City, and Long Island at nearly 50 sites.

Jeannette J. Phillips was born in Harlem, New York City on February 20, 1933. She attended the historic Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, Florida, where her academic and social engagements helped shape her future pursuits. Upon her graduation in 1955, Rev. Phillips accepted a job at the Veterans Hospital in Montrose, New York, where she became passionate about increasing access to quality health care.

In 1972, Rev. Phillips, along with Deputy Commissioner of the Westchester Health Department Dr. Phyllis Koteen, Dr. Ron Johnson of the New York Medical Academy at Grasslands in Valhalla, and Westchester Community Action Program Director Harriet Gelfan, spearheaded efforts to secure one of the last grants from the Office of Economic Opportunity to open the Peekskill

Area Ambulatory Health Care Center.

In 2015, Sun River Health's Peekskill health center was renamed The Jeannette J. Phillips Community Health Center with many dignitaries present, including Dr. Jack Geiger, one of the

founders of the Community Health Center movement, who opened the nation's first two community health centers in Boston, Massachusetts and Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Rev. Phillips was subsequently honored by the New York State Legislature in the State Capital and was the recipient of numerous other awards and recognitions, including the New York State Governor's Award for African Americans of Distinction in 1994, The CHCANYS Catherine M. Abate Memorial award in 2018, and Crain's Notable Women in Healthcare in 2019. Her most cherished recognitions were the Sojourner Truth Award, which she received in 1994 and The

Harriet Tubman Award for her work as the Westchester District President of the Harriet Tubman Home Historical Society.

Rev. Phillips was the proud matriarch of her family, which includes her three daughters and two sons, her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, over 100 in all.

Rev. Phillips also shared her love of ministry with her husband, the Rev. Howard Phillips, both ordained in the A.M.E. Zion Church.

"It is my faith that keeps me grounded," Rev. Phillips often said. "And it is my belief that God equips and strengthens those who are called to serve."

Donations welcome to Park Street AME Zion Church in Peekskill, NY and the Sun River Health Foundation Heritage Library Fund.