A lifetime of

self-discovery

Charlotte Phillips, EdD ’09
Instructor, Army Medical Department Center & School
Fort Sam Houston, Texas

“My Army career was exceptionally fulfilling. I would not trade it for the world. It instilled in me a sense of discipline and taught me I could do anything I wanted to do. It may take time, but there is nothing out there that I can’t accomplish.”

Charlotte Phillips, EdD ’09

First calling

When Phillips decided to retire from the Army in 2009, she accepted a teaching job at the Army Medical Department Center & School (AMDCS) in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. She teaches on the military installation in a civilian capacity, training the instructors who will teach medical courses to trainees. “If you have a medical job and are in the Army, then you most likely came through AMDCS.”

Phillips teaches several different courses there, including adult learning principles, learning objectives and task analysis. Her PTSD research gives her an edge with her students, many of whom are instructors just returning from war. “I can identify if they are suffering from PTSD and offer resources to help them.”

A bright future

Whether she’s treating soldiers fresh from a war zone or sharing her knowledge with teachers of tomorrow, Phillips is happy with her life’s path. What does success mean to her? “It’s getting to wake up every morning and help others,” she contends.

First ambitions

“I remember when I was very young, I told my mother I wanted to be a school teacher,” says Phillips. Despite those early aspirations, at age 23 she woke up one day and decided to enlist in the Army. “I just did it,” she admits. “I didn’t tell my mother until eight weeks later when I had reached the point of no return.”

Committed to her decision—and armed with a healthy sense of adventure and a can-do outlook—Phillips settled into Army life. Though she had an associate degree under her belt before she enlisted, she was set on continuing her education. During her first years in the Army, she actively pursued her bachelor’s degree despite the many obstacles that soldiers face when attempting to get an education. “I was moving every two years and bouncing from college to college,” she says. “It took me 14 years to complete my bachelor’s degree. It was one of the most difficult degrees for me to get.” Undeterred by the lengthy timeline, she went on to earn her master’s degree, too.

Treating the wounded

In the Army, Phillips served as an X-ray technologist and eventually found herself at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. military medical hospital in Germany.

There, she served casualties returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. “We got them before they were flown to the United States for continued care,” she says.

At Landstuhl, Phillips came face-to-face with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “I saw a lot of soldiers with traumatic wounds,” she says. “At times we would be walking the halls and see patients with that deer-in-the-headlights look. [The staff] was deeply affected by this.”

While at Landstuhl, Phillips decided to pursue her Doctor of Educational Leadership at UOPX. When it came time to select a topic for her dissertation, the choice was obvious. “I was inspired to write about PTSD,” she says. “I wanted to know more about it and what kind of effect it would have on this young generation later on.”

In spite of—or perhaps because of—the trying circumstances under which she worked in Germany, Phillips found great satisfaction in her work. “My Army career was exceptionally fulfilling,” she says. “I would not trade it for the world. It instilled in me a sense of discipline and taught me I could do anything I wanted to do. It may take time, but there is nothing out there that I can’t accomplish.”