Retired Rear Adm. Ann Phillips was among the first cohorts of women to serve on ships at sea. She said “as soon as somebody tells me no, then I'm like, ‘Hmm, oh yes, watch this.’”
By Katherine Hafner
WHRO
Ann Phillips joined the Navy just as the branch started allowing women to serve on ships at sea.
She didn’t stop trailblazing there. Phillips climbed the officer ranks, drove and commanded ships and led an expeditionary strike force.
Three decades later, after retiring from the service as a rear admiral, Phillips joined a pilot project for Hampton Roads leaders to learn more about the growing threat of sea level rise.
That opened doors for positions on resilience and infrastructure in state and federal government.
It’s all added up to a lifetime in public service working on some of the biggest issues of our time.
“I was incredibly fortunate to be able to take advantage of things as they came along,” said Phillips, 63. “But I would say with that comes a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice.”
Phillips is currently Administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, which oversees the Merchant Marine Academy and works with ports and the maritime industry nationwide.
She’s become an outspoken advocate on the threat of climate change, particularly on national security and military infrastructure.
The Department of Defense found a few years ago that more than two-thirds of the military’s mission-critical installations are threatened by climate change — including all of those in Hampton Roads.
At the same time, conservative leaders at the state and national levels continue to question established science on human-caused climate change. Most Republicans and some conservative Democrats have fought regulations that would reduce the use of fossil fuels and curb the effects of climate change.
In Virginia, elected officials often used the term “recurrent flooding” before starting to acknowledge the role of sea level rise in state documents in more recent years.
Phillips was one of the first women to go to sea with the Navy. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ at WHRO
Civil servants like Phillips try and keep their heads down and carry on their work no matter who’s in charge.
For Phillips, it all started growing up in Annapolis, Maryland, as the daughter of public servants.
“I’m kind of in a world of people who have served the public,” including military service, she said. “That’s who we are. That’s what we do.”
She also happened to live near the U.S. Naval Academy, and watched as a teenager as it first opened its doors to women.
“I found that fascinating,” she said. “It was a recurring theme that stuck with me.”
Phillips attended the ROTC program at the University of North Carolina, and joined the Navy after graduation.
She wanted to go to sea, and became one of the first cohorts of women to do so.
“There was always the sense of adventure in the sense of, ‘this is something that women don't do.’ I'm an introvert, but there's a streak in me that as soon as somebody tells me no, then I'm
like, ‘Hmm, oh yes, watch this.’”
She served on the training aircraft carrier USS Lexington and from there, “it was really off to the races.”
Over the next 31 years of active duty, Phillips took increasingly complex and important strategic roles, and ultimately helmed the Expeditionary Strike Group Two in Hampton Roads.
After retiring as a flag officer, she was finishing up an MBA at William & Mary when she was approached by a group including officials at Old Dominion University and the National Security Council.
The group wanted her help to study the impact of sea level rise and climate change on Hampton Roads.
Phillips said she had no background on the topic besides seeing the havoc flooding could wreak at Naval Station Norfolk.
But she agreed to lead a committee on infrastructure, working with local planners, engineers and attorneys to explore the issue. The more she learned, the more passionate she became.
“I felt that there was a lot more to be done and that this was a matter of urgent importance to this region but really to our nation,” she said.
The effort – formally called the Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Pilot Project – identified five desired outcomes to help the region adapt to the challenges. They suggested creating a centralized regional data center and developing regional planning standards on things like floor elevation required in building code.
The work led her to a newly created position under Gov. Ralph Northam: special assistant to the governor of Virginia for coastal adaptation and protection.
The job came with a big responsibility, creating the state’s first Coastal Resilience Master Plan. It would outline how Virginia will be affected by increased flooding and what can be done to adapt.
Getting everyone to agree on basic concepts was difficult, Phillips said.
“It turns out that the whole idea of what's most critical and vulnerable is a very tough problem. Your idea of critical and vulnerable may not be the same as someone else's. And so what we wanted to really just do is show, here's the data that we have.”
The team released its plan right before Northam left office, recommending actions to protect Virginia communities from flooding like restoring wetlands, elevating seawalls and upgrading stormwater infrastructure to handle more water. (State officials are now working on phase two, set to be released by the end of this year.)
Phillips has spent decades in public service. Serving in the military and state and federal governments. She currently serves as the US Department of Transportation maritime administrator. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ at WHRO
Meanwhile, Phillips got a call “completely on a whim” from the Biden administration, asking whether she’d be interested in a role in Washington. In May 2022, she was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as USDOT’s maritime administrator.
Navigating through bureaucracy can come with its frustrations, Phillips said.
“I tend to think people sometimes dismiss public service. ‘Oh, it's boring. You don't get much pay,’” she said.
“There are moments where perhaps you may feel that those things apply to you. But for public service more broadly, you are part of a higher calling and a part of a collective good. You're part of the execution of democracy in this country.”
Even at the smallest level, Phillips can’t help but get involved: she spearheaded a neighborhood wetlands project in Riverpoint near her Norfolk home.
Editor’s note: Ann Phillips is a former member of the WHRO Board of Directors.
Reach Katherine Hafner at katherine.hafner@whro.org.