Evelyn Newman Phillips, Ph.D. is an applied anthropologist and chair of the Department of Anthropology who teaches at Central Connecticut State University. Her professional life exemplifies her search to understand and alter the conditions of inequality, the impact of structural violence and urban policies on the lives of African-descendant peoples in both North America and Africa. To understand her position is to appreciate her journey through her family’s education lineage. Her professional position honors her foremothers and the community who nurtured her. She is the great-great granddaughter of Sarah Newman, who is the mother of Evelyn’s paternal great grandfather Marvin. Sarah, who was snatched from Sierra Leone at age eight, suffered captivity in Alabama and had two sons and a husband sold to the Pennsylvania railway and never to see them again. Evelyn is a child of Florida who denied a full education to her ancestors including her mother and grandmother. Florida did not provide education beyond the 8^th grade in many communities. Through double taxation Black families had to send their children away other schools built by the black community. Her achievement represents the barriers that she and her family overcame to express their call for justice for all.

Before receiving her doctorate at the University of South Florida in Tampa, she achieved a master’s degree in social work from Florida State University and served various communities in roles that included medical social worker, Peace Corps volunteer and therapist. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Gambia for almost four years. After Peace Corps, she worked as a consultant for United States Agency for International Development. She has brought those experiences to her work in anthropology. Her research includes African American experiences in New Britain, Connecticut, Annie Malone and Poro Beauty Culture, an autoethnography of education among the women in her family and displacement of African peoples in St. Petersburg, Florida, among others topics. A consistent theme in her published works, community service and teaching highlight the resiliency of African communities and their collective energy to address structural violence. Newman Phillips considers herself a global citizen who works to make the world a place without socially constructed boundaries that leads to inequities and deprive us all our full humanity. She is a Central Connecticut State University recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. This honor reveals her goal to make life better for all.