Chatham’s Next President is Ready for Pittsburgh (and Fries On Salads)
It was on a farm in Mississippi that Rhonda Phillips watched her father work, and she developed seedlings of ideas that would later grow into her focuses in academics: sustainability, community, and well-being.
Her father was ahead of his time, Dr. Phillips said.
“What we would call sustainable farming methods now, he was doing that way back when others didn’t,” she said. “He was not using the heavy chemicals that were flooding the market in those times, in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And he was very respectful of the role of nature.”
It was an upbringing that embedded in her the sense that people must be good stewards of the land, and it taught her lessons that she will bring to Chatham University this year when she becomes its new president.
An impressive résumé
Dr. Phillips, who will be Chatham’s 20th president, comes directly from Purdue University, where she spent the last 10 years as the inaugural dean of the John Martinson Honors College.
Before that, she was the associate dean of Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University.
She is also a three-time Fulbright scholar, studying twice in Panama and once in Northern Ireland, and has presented her work on community well-being at the United Nations Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Looking at Dr. Phillips’ long list of accomplishments, it’s not hard to see why she received a unanimous vote of approval from Chatham’s presidential search committee, which received strong interest from a wide field of applicants.
Pittsburgh bound
What drew Dr. Phillips to Chatham was its strong sense of place and community well-being, and she said it was well-positioned at the confluence of Pittsburgh’s innovation and creativity.
Although she hasn’t spent a great deal of time in Pittsburgh yet, she said it was a place she’s respected for a while.
“Even though it was in this rust belt portion of the US, it has always had this entrepreneurial spirit,” she said. “And it has this edgy, creative side to it with art and culture that I’ve always admired.”
But there are still aspects of the city that Dr. Phillips is trying to wrap her head around—don’t expect her to understand where “dahntahn” is, let alone “Worshington.”
“Some of the accents I have to listen to a little bit more carefully,” she said with a laugh. “It’s different than the midwestern accents.”
“I understand pierogies are a very big dish here, and so are salads with French fries,” she added. “I’m willing to try both if you can find gluten-free versions.”
Taking flight
Dr. Phillips received her bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1983. She returned for graduate school and in 1986 obtained a master’s degree in economic development. In 1992, she earned another master’s in economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she later received her doctorate in city and regional planning in 1996.
She has also written, co-written, and edited more than 30 academic textbooks and authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and other pieces of academic writing.
But those who attended her welcome ceremony in Campbell Memorial Chapel may have heard that she also has extracurricular interest in aviation and was once a pilot. She stopped flying once she had children, but she took a particular interest in gliders.
“I found that I absolutely loved being in the elements of nature,” she said. “You’re not relying on the engine, you’re relying on wind currents, and you’re relying on how you weave those air currents. It was one of the most thrilling adventures I’ve ever had, to fly gliders.”
In addition to her children, who are now adults, she has two dogs: Ellie, a large Burmese mountain dog named after Eleanor Roosevelt, and Nora, an energetic American mini shepherd named for the writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron.
“She will try to herd, because she’s a herder dog,” Dr. Phillips said of the latter. “She will herd anything that moves, whether it’s birds, people, bugs ... vacuum cleaners.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, the former first lady, is just one of the women Dr. Phillips was quick to cite as an inspiration. She also namechecked Amelia Earhart (noting she was a one-time professor at Purdue) and Chatham’s beloved alumna, Rachael Carson.
“Those are two people I’ve admired as long as I’ve known about them,” she said. “To have a connection to places they both were, I don’t know. It’s sort of special.”
But even as she reminisced about Chatham’s legacy, she said she envisioned amazing opportunities ahead as she prepares to lead the University into the future.
“I am so enthused to meet people across this whole community within Chatham,” she said. “I’m so excited to learn more about Pittsburgh and become a member of the community.”
Mick Stinelli is a Writer and Digital Content Specialist at Chatham University. His writing has previously appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and 90.5 WESA, and he has a B.A. in Broadcast Production and Media Management from Point Park University. Mick, a native of western Pennsylvania, spends his free time watching movies and playing music.