Steven Phillips, MD, MPH

Vice president of science and strategy, COVID Collaborative

Dr. Phillips is an internist, medical epidemiologist, and public health professional who has held leadership positions in global health, pandemic preparedness, and international development spanning private, government, academic and think-tank sectors over a three-decade career. He currently serves as Vice President of Science and Strategy at the COVID Collaborative. He also serves on global and national public health and community-service organization boards, holds two think-tank appointments, and is also an independent consultant in COVID-19 pandemic response, global health strategy, policy and finance. 

The COVID Collaborative is a national platform that has brought top experts and institutions in health, education and the economy together with the National Governors Association and other associations representing state and local leaders to take unified action to stop the spread, and safely and sustainably reopen schools, workplaces and other places where Americans gather and to renew our robust economy. Dr. Phillips manages the vaccination education, COVID-19 testing and private sector outreach portfolios of the Collaborative, and is liaison with the scientific advisory board of its National Advisory Council.

As a Senior Fellow at Chatham House, Dr. Phillips was the founder of the Extractive Industries Infectious Diseases Risk Assessment and Management Initiative, a global policy-level discussion among the extraction industry, international development and finance institutions, national government stakeholders and science leaders addressing the risks and management of existing and new transmissible diseases in tropical hot zones. Dr. Phillips was formerly Medical Director for Global Projects at Exxon Mobil Corporation. He managed a global health services enterprise of over 500 health professionals and an annual budget of $75 million. He created and operationalized the $120 million ExxonMobil Malaria Initiative. As CEO Rex Tillerson’s “ambassador” to the global health community, he worked closely with G7 governments, NGOs, foundations, UN agencies (WHO/UNICEF), multilateral, and faith-based organizations, African governments and the private sector in fostering public-private partnerships as a development platform to address urgent global health priorities. He has served two terms as private sector representative on the Board and Executive Committee of the Roll Back Malaria partnership in Geneva. In this capacity he coordinated the business sector input of some 30 companies to setting the global policy agenda of the World Health Organization, and the development of strategic plans and financing toward the global malaria elimination by 2025 goal. He also served in a similar capacity as part of the private sector constituency to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria in Geneva, 2006-2010.

Prior to his ExxonMobil career Dr. Phillips served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, assigned to the New York City Department of Public Health.

He currently serves on the advisory boards of Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York, The Wooster Group (NYC theater company), Team Africa Rising (Rwanda sports non-profit), Speak Up Africa (health advocacy non-profit), and as an advisor to the United Nations Special Envoy for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Global Health Program of the University of California at San Francisco, and the Waterman’s Community Center (North Haven, ME). He received his baccalaureate and medical degrees at Stanford University, and a Master of Public Health from UCLA. Dr. Phillips is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and of the American Board of Preventive and Occupational Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.