
Rev. Jeannette Phillips
Executive Director, Housing Preservation Company & Executive Vice President of Community Development, Sun River Health
The Reverend Jeannette J. Phillips, Executive Vice President of Community Development and Founding Mother of Sun River Health, was born in Harlem, New York in 1933. She attended the historic Booker T. Washington High School in Miami, Florida, where her academic and social engagements, including delivering an anti-Korean War graduation message, 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 1956, she married Rev. Howard Phillips, and the couple purchased a home together. When they were approached by a member of the Veteran's Administration to provide housing for community veterans and seniors, they readily accepted and invited them into their own home. This gave Rev. Phillips a firsthand understanding of the unmet needs of residents in her own community.
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. This was done in reaction to the total dissatisfaction that Rev. Phillips and the other Founding Mothers, the late Mary Woods, Willie Mae Jackson, and Pearl Woods, had to the lack of access to basic health care services in Peekskill, New York. Rev. Phillips became the first Chairwoman Pro Tem of the Board of Directors of the Health Center, now known has Sun River Health, which has since become one of the largest systems of Federally Qualified Health Centers in the United States. During this time, Rev. Phillips received her Bachelor of Science with honors from Mercy College and went on to attend New York Theological Seminary, later completing four years of Conference Studies in the A.M.E. Zion Church. She was ordained as a Deacon then Elder in 1992 and became the pastor of the historic Woodside A.M.E. Zion Church in Stamford, Connecticut.
Rev. Phillips has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including the New York State Governor's Award for African Americans of Distinction in 1994. In 2015, Sun River Health’s Peekskill Health Center was renamed The Jeannette J. Phillips Community Health Center, leading Rev. Phillips to be honored by the New York State Legislature in the State Capital. Her most cherished recognitions however have been 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.
Stemming from her belief that housing and health care go hand-in-hand, Rev. Phillips is also the Executive Director of The Preservation Company, Inc. established by Sun River Health over thirty years ago to meet the housing needs of the Peekskill community. Rev. Phillips is the proud matriarch of her family, which includes her three daughters and two sons, her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.
Rev. Phillips also shares her love of ministry with her husband who have both been revered as pioneer preachers in the Hudson Valley. To quote Rev. Phillips, “It is my faith that keeps me grounded, and it is my belief that God equips and strengthens those who are called to serve.”