Lynn Phillips

About Lynn

• She was told all her life that she should be a psychiatrist; her mom didn't get to go to medical school, so she wanted her daughter to go.
• After college, Lynn decided she wanted to pursue a Ph.D. rather than an M.D., and she ironically had to "break" that news to her mom.
• She knew she was disappointing her mother, but it felt empowering to finally take control of her own destiny.
• At the beginning of her studies, she was interested in consumerism; says, "I was talking about importance of having a choice of toothpastes."
• A professor pointed out that while she was talking about mundane choices, people were starving; she had an epiphany, and everything fell into place.
• She's taught gender studies classes for 25 years; says her work can be "ugly" at times, but she feels strongly and deeply about it.
• She taught her first class as part of her postgraduate school coursework; at first, she was absolutely terrified.
• After her midterm evaluations revealed that her students actually loved her class, she decided to stick with teaching.