Honors for the First Black Woman to Receive a Bachelor’s Degree at Vanderbilt University
Filed in African-American History, Honors & Awards on August 4, 2017
In 1967 Dorothy J. Phillips became the first African American women to earn an undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She went on to earned a Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Phillips went on to a distinguished career at Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, and Waters Corporation, an analytical instrument manufacturer in Milford, Massachusetts. She was elected to the board of director of the American Chemical Society in 2013.
Dr. Phillips is being honored by Vanderbilt University with the establishment of the Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips Chancellor’s Faculty Fellowships. The fellowships will support mid-career faculty members in STEM fields at the university.
The university has also established the Dorothy J. Phillips Chair to Support Diversity in STEM.
