The Reverend Jeannette Phillips

The Reverend Jeannette J. Phillips has been a pioneer in securing access to health care for the disenfranchised for over five decades. In the early 1970s, the African American women of Peekskill, New York chose Rev. Phillips to lead their effort to start a community health center that would provide access to affordable health care. Through her extraordinary efforts, the first Hudson River Health Care health center, then called the Peekskill Area Ambulatory Health Care Center, was opened in 1975. Rev. Phillips became the first Board Chair, and in 1977 joined the health center as its first Outreach Director. Today, she serves as the Executive Director of the Housing Preservation Company and Executive Vice President of Community Development, overseeing culture and legacy, community relations, the spiritual health and wellness of HRHCare staff, as well as serving as special advisor to the CEO.