Dr. Evelyn Newman Phillips, a faculty member and chair of the Anthropology Department at Central Connecticut State University (CCSA), received the 2022 Distinguished Service Award, one of the university’s highest honors.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes members of CCSA’s university community who provide exemplary service to the university over an extended period.

“In all her roles at CCSU and within the community, Dr. Phillips has exemplified uncommon commitment, vision and selflessness,” members of the Anthropology Department wrote in their nomination letter. “She has justly earned the admiration and gratitude of her colleagues, students and members of the wider social community.”

Dr. Phillips described how touched she was realizing the nomination came from colleagues.

 “It has been very affirming because you know when you’re working, especially in a position as a professor, you never really know what your impact is,” she shared. “It’s building that sense of a community and helping to move the university forward to become an institution that taxpayers can send their kids and help them develop as well as to develop the surrounding communities to make them stronger.”

Originally from Caryville, Florida, she received her doctoral degree in applied anthropology from the University of South Florida. As an applied anthropologist, Dr. Phillips describes her research as looking at cultural groups and trying to help them address issues in the community.

“I have done a local history of African Americans in New Britain and also my research looks at African Americans in St. Petersburg, Florida and how they have been displaced by tourism and other economic development schemes,” she explained. She added that she found a sense of community in New Britain, Connecticut, with an oral history project providing a greater understanding of the experience of community members.

She described her work as being driven by her first-hand experiences as a woman of African American descent and her priority to bring social justice into communities. Dr. Phillips also credits her experiences as a social worker as influencing her research. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees (BSW, 1972; MSW, 1974) in social work from Florida State University.

Dr. Phillips joined CCSU’s faculty in 1994 and joined the African Studies Committee, playing an instrumental role in establishing the Center for Africana Studies in 2001. She was the center’s director, interim and co-director for more than 15 years.

She is a faculty senator and is a member of several committees including the Minority Recruitment, Retention Committee and Affirmative Action Employee Advisory Committee and International Studies Committee.

In 2019, as a part of the Ebenezer Bassett Memorialization Committee, she and colleagues successfully got CCSU’s social sciences building renamed after alumnus and educational trailblazer Ebenezer Bassett. Shortly after she also launched a campus-wide celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Anthropology Department. Dr. Phillips is also a founding member of CCSU’s John Lewis Institute for Social Justice in 2021.

She has received other awards including the 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2015 John P. Shaw Community Service Award from the New Britain Branch NAACP along with the Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring from CCSU’s NAACP Student Chapter.

Although she is enjoying the accolades and congratulatory words and gifts, Dr. Phillips concluded that “There is a lot more work to be done.”