RAMONA Gail (McIver) PHILLIPS
![Gail Phillips](https://www.alaskawomenshalloffame.org/wp-content/uploads/2015-gail.jpg)
• Legislator, Assembly Woman
• Community Service
Inducted: 2015
Deceased: 2021
Homer
Nome
RAMONA Gail (McIver) PHILLIPS
Gail Phillips summed up her first political campaign in one word “economics.” Years later she was named one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Alaskans four times in a row. Phillips was elected majority leader of the State House, then twice elected speaker. Rep. Mike Navarre, Kenai Democrat, who served with Phillips, said: “she’s good at delegating, works by consensus and is very fair although she also has a bit of a temper. But she’s not heavy-handed.”
Born in Juneau, raised in Nome, she received her higher education in Fairbanks, represented Homer or the Kenai Peninsula for more than two decades in elected local and state political positions, Phillips has lived throughout Alaska.
Leadership came naturally for this oldest of seven sisters. She was elected to her high school student council, becoming president, and served on the University of Alaska’s legislative (student) council for three years. Phillips, a life-long Republican, was president of Young Republicans in high school and college. A decade later she was elected state secretary of the Alaska Republican Party and, of course, ran for partisan office as a Republican.
Phillips’ life isn’t all politics. At the beginning of the great dog race, she was bitten by the Iditarod bug and has served as a volunteer at all levels and continues to do so.
She has been an elected public official, a consultant, small business owner, mining company working partner, high school and community college teacher, airline employee and a clerk in a drug store. Phillips is also a wife and mother of two girls and grandmother of two. She has and is serving on a number of organizations boards of directors.
An interesting note, Phillips uses shorthand to take notes throughout all parts of her life, saying it’s useful and no one can read her notes.
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