Karen E. S. Phillips Email & Phone Number

United States

I am able to bring my considerable expertise in the area of Pre-Health Advising to help prepare students for various aspects of the medical school application process. I provide valued guidance on both the tone and content of application essays and the Personal Statement, and I also help to prepare applicants who have gotten to that stage for their medical school interviews. Ultimately, I aim to assist students in finding the best way to represent their authentic selves as they strive to pursue deeply held aspirations to become physicians.During my time as its Director, the Pre-Health Program at Hunter College saw a significant increase in overall acceptance rates of Committee Letter recipients from 51% in 2011 to 82% for 2016, which was my last year overseeing that process. For Hunter undergraduates, the improvement was even more pronounced, going from 46% in 2011 to 80% for 2016. Acceptance rates for Post-Baccalaureates in the Certificate Program increased from 62% under my watch in 2011 to 100% for 2016 admissions. I also take great pride in the fact that 100% of the students whose Committee Letters I wrote were accepted to medical, dental or veterinary programs. It is this record of success that I draw upon to help current applicants to achieve their professional goals.

United States

I began tutoring Organic Chemistry while I was still pursuing my Associates Degree and my reputation and success as a tutor actually led to my first opportunities to teach. Since then, I have held the belief that if you teach a subject you should also be required to tutor in that field as this forces you to focus on and anticipate the conceptual challenges that students are likely to have. My experience as a tutor allowed me to set student learning and the reciprocity that comes with that as my primary teaching objective rather than unilateral transmission of information. With decades of experience teaching and tutoring this most notoriously challenging subject, I have the understanding, skill and resources for practice necessary to make any Organic Chemistry topic accessible, manageable, and even enjoyable. I am available for individual or group tutoring sessions, conducted online at times that can work around busy schedules.

Department Of Chemistry

As DUS, I advised students in undergraduate level Chemistry classes, evaluated the equivalence of transfer credits, recommended course sequences for majors, provided broader advice for pre-medical students, assisted with the resolution of course conflicts or grade appeals, and interfaced between faculty and the office of Disability Services regarding student accommodations and complications that arose in relation to them. I also evaluated students’ eligibility for departmental, college-wide, and national honors, awards and fellowships.I also oversaw the Undergraduate Office and Instructional Faculty as well as the personnel who run the Chemical Preparations facilities. These responsibilities included guiding activities related to teaching or course preparation, attending to concerns related to other personnel, students, or teaching assignments, advocating on their behalf, clarifying issues related to work obligations and compensation, and mediating transactions for equipment purchases. I was responsible for conducting searches for new Instructional Faculty and identified suitable adjunct instructors whenever the need arose. I also oversaw the Summer Teaching Assistant Training Program to introduce new graduate students to the Department’s resources and procedures and prepare them for their first teaching assignments. I also chaired Undergraduate Committee Meetings in which matters of broader relevance were discussed with the Chair and other faculty representatives. I represented the Department at campus-wide DUS meetings, which allowed for a broader exchange of information between academic departments, Student Advising Services, the Registrar and other campus entities. Responsibilities associated with this position were significantly increased since the mid-spring of 2020 to facilitate the rapid transition to online instruction due to COVID-19, planning for the fully online 2020-2021 academic year, and return to in-person instruction for the fall of 2021.

Department Of Chemistry

I feel that I was born to be a teacher and identify most strongly with that facet of my professional life. Having the opportunity to inspire students to learn and even enjoy a notoriously difficult subject like Organic Chemistry is incredibly rewarding and the ability to really be myself in the classroom definitely enhances that experience for me. I think of my classroom as an environment where learning is socially constructed and I invite students to participate in both the learning and the teaching that occurs there. Over the years, it has become apparent that I learn as much from my students as they take away from my lectures and other interactive experiences in my course. To facilitate this reciprocity in the classroom I practice a type of collaborative learning activity that I refer to as Performance Enhanced Interactive Learning (PEIL). The fundamental feature of PEIL is that students perform the role of the instructor during weekly problem solving workshops and group presentation exercises. Small group discussions precede the performance phase of the activity in which students explain the rationale behind their problem solving strategies to the rest of the class. Students who actively engage in the process develop fluency in the language and symbolism of Organic Chemistry at a remarkable rate and seem to retain the information for a very long time. This fluency is also encouraged by focusing lectures on the understanding of chemical behavior and reaction mechanisms rather than rote memorization.A roster of successful former students, acting as volunteer Workshop Leaders, contribute to the success of this learning environment and help to empower and inspire those currently enrolled by providing guidance during the PEIL workshop sessions and by holding their own office hours. Every time I step into the classroom, I am still blown away by the beautifully supportive culture that developed over the years and that persists long after students leave my classes.

New York City Metropolitan Area

As Director of the Yalow Scholars Program, I was instrumental in the recruitment of each cohort and the design of their curriculum. In turn, the Yalows had me to depend on as a source of advice and support. Named in honor of Nobel Laureate, Rosalyn Yalow, the Program allows a select group of freshmen with outstanding academic records and an expressed interest in the sciences or medical careers to enter Hunter as part of a close knit and highly motivated learning community with the benefit of financial support. The Yalow curriculum is very challenging and each Scholar is expected to maintain high standards of academic excellence throughout their undergraduate years while also participating in research and/or relevant clinical experiences. A hallmark of the Yalow curriculum during my time as its Director was a freshman seminar that provided exposure to peers and professionals from a variety of scientific areas through presentations, panel discussions and field trips. The majority of the Yalows also enrolled in my Organic Chemistry lectures during their sophomore year. By getting to know the Scholars from early on I was able to recommend them for internships, scholarships and graduate or professional school admission. It was very gratifying to witness how successful these Yalow Scholars were. They participated in prestigious internships at places like the Metropolitan Museum's Object Conservation Department, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Wood's Hole, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. They won awards for presentations at Hunter's Undergraduate Research Conference and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. One Yalow Scholar was the recipient of the Jonas E. Salk Award and another won a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. All Yalow Scholars who applied to medical and dental schools during my time overseeing the Program were accepted. I am honored to have been part of the education and training of such bright and promising students.

This was an incredibly challenging but infinitely rewarding position. The main challenge came in the sheer volume of students served with a very small staff. Service in this role involved ongoing advising on academic and extracurricular requirements, application and personal statement review, as well as all of the other professional development activities that go into the grooming of a successful candidate for medical, dental, veterinary, optometry or podiatry programs. Many of the students who applied were supported by Pre-Health Committee Letters, which were written by faculty, advising staff and other consultants. I take great pride in the fact that 100% of the students whose Committee Letters I wrote and 100% of the students whose applications and personal statements I reviewed were accepted to medical, dental or veterinary school. Overall, the Pre-Health Office, under my leadership, saw a dramatic increases in acceptance rates for both undergraduates and post-baccalaureates. The acceptance rate for undergraduates rose from 49% for 2011 to 80% for the 2016 cycle. Post-Baccalaureate applicants have shown an increase in their acceptance rate from 62% to 100% during that same period. By leveraging technology and workshop formats for advising large groups as well as implementing structures to enforce program requirements and track students' progress, we were able to generate these kinds of improvements in success rates, particularly for the large undergraduate population. None of this could have been accomplished without the amazing and dedicated team of individuals who worked with me and the enormous collaborative effort that we put in during that time to best support and prepare Hunter students.

Hunter College

Ph.D., Chemistry

Activities and Societies: Co-Founded the Columbia Chemistry Careers Committee - a student-run organization that still remains very active.

Bs, Chemistry, Biology, Fine Art

Aa, Chemistry, Fine Art

Bachelor'S Degree

Education record

Kingston, Jamaica