Jennifer K Phillips, MD

Family Medicine

Biography

Dr. Jennifer Phillips joined the UNM Medical Group (UNMMG) as the Interim Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in March 2020. Dr. Phillips was the medical director of the UNM Hospital Family Medicine clinic on Tucker, and the co-medical director of the UNMMG Center for Reproductive Health. She is a key physician leader in primary care, and an integral part of the MG Clinical Operation’s Group. As a primary care leader, Dr. Phillips has played a critical role in studying, developing, advocating for, and piloting the team-based model of care, or APEX. . Dr. Phillips is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine who has excelled in previous roles as Vice Chair for Clinical Services and as Associate Chair. Dr. Phillips was previously elected as UNMH Chief of Staff and served from 2017 - 2019. Her leadership and collaborative expertise helped build a network of primary care clinics that provide inter-professional education and clinical care for UNM’s clinical network. She collaborates with health care workers across the state in her role with First Choice Community Health Care and the UNM Alumni Office to create a network of service, learning, and scholarly connections in hopes to expand primary care and improve the health of the state. Dr. Phillips is a lifelong New Mexican who graduated from UNM in 1997 and UNM Medical School in 2001. She is truly a Lobo for life! Her special clinical interests are women’s health and reproduction, obstetrics, pediatrics, and preventive care. She comes from a long line of educators and likes to teach those who would like to learn about health and medicine. She practices patient-centered care and seeks to inspire her patients to be attentive to living healthy lives, involving the body, mind, and spirit. Her current passions are creating systems and leading teams that address the social determinants of health, celebrate and promote diversity and inclusion, and reduce health disparities in New Mexico.

Personal Statement

I am passionate about improving the health of the people of New Mexico. All of my teaching efforts involve service to this goal. I have been a teacher since my time as a tutor in college and now I have all levels of learners that I teach in my clinical environments as a family doctor and in the classroom as a professor of Family and Community Medicine. I work with pre-medical shadowing students, medical students, residents and faculty. I teach because it magnifies and multiplies my own work. I teach because I want to be continually learning myself. Patient care is one of my greatest passions and one of the things I enjoy most about my profession. I was the medical director at that clinic which was the “original” family medicine clinic in the UNM Health System. I have a large full-spectrum Family Medicine practice including pediatrics, adults, geriatrics, obstetrics, adolescents, gynecology and I do many procedures. My body of work is focused on women’s health and reproduction, preventive and primary care and addressing the social determinants of health to improve the health of New Mexico through teaching and clinical service in these areas. I have become a leader in the clinical and administrative realm. I have felt drawn to leadership and service because I believe diverse voices, including women’s voices, are important and I enjoy being in service in this way. If not me, then who?