Dr. Lessa Phillips, MD

United Healthcare Community Plan
Chief Medical Officer
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Chair of the Department of Family Medicine (Retired)

Dr. Phillips graduated from Newcomb College (’69) and Tulane University School of Medicine (’73) in New Orleans, Louisiana. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson, Mississippi in 1976. In 1987, Dr. Phillips was the first woman chosen to chair a department at the UMMC School of Medicine, serving as the Chair of the Department of Family Medicine until her retirement in 2006. Dr. Phillips maintained an active clinical practice in her department throughout her academic career and is a much sought-after physician and teacher. She has been named annually to the Best Doctors in America since 1996 and was awarded a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship in 1990. Dr. Phillips is Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine and Professor of Nursing in the School of Nursing at UMMC.

After retiring from the Medical Center in 2006, Dr. Phillips received her Master of Public Health degree from San Jose State University in San Jose, California. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine since 1976. Throughout her career, she has focused on resolving racial health inequities in Mississippi and the South.