Stephanie Phillips, last on the right, poses with students from her Child Development Services 2 course during the 2025-2026 school year as they celebrated graduation. Photo courtesy Stephanie Phillips
(FRANKFORT, KY) – Stephanie Phillips, a family consumer sciences teacher at Paul Blazer High School (Ashland Independent), is the newest non-voting teacher member of the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE).
Phillips said she grew up believing she was going to be a teacher.
“From the time I was little, I taught my teddy bears and those kinds of things,” she said.
Her career started in early childhood education but eventually, she moved to the high school level to teach family consumer sciences as part of Ashland Independent’s career and technical education (CTE) program. She has been in her current role with the district for 14 years.
“As I continued with (my education career), I saw more of a need to get with older children to get them started in their career,” she said. “And that’s why I love career and tech education, family consumer sciences: I’m opening the door for the next generation to know what they want to do, and giving them ideas about what direction they want to go in.”
And many of Phillips’ classes at Paul Blazer High School fall within the early childhood education pathway in the family and consumer sciences program at the school.
Living in Greenup County and growing up in Ashland, where she works now, she said she has seen many challenges associated with the career opportunities that are available to young students once they graduate. She said the challenges often get overlooked, though, and she’s eager to be an advocate for the region.
Phillips said she’s excited to see how education policy works at the state level and offer her thoughts to the discussions.
“I’m kind of a policy and standards geek. That’s the side of education I love,” she said. “I love watching the legislative process. I follow bills, and then I love curriculum and standards.”
Phillips credits the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) with helping her get her start in family consumer sciences, learning about the opening for her current role with Ashland Independent while on an FCCLA trip in 2013.
She went on to Eastern Kentucky University to earn a master’s degree. Phillips became a teacher through one of Kentucky’s alternative pathways to educator certification, which allow individuals who have demonstrated exceptional work and/or educational experiences to teach in the classroom. Option 6 is the university-based alternative route where teachers enroll in a post-baccalaureate teacher preparation program concurrently with employment as a teacher in a school district.
Now Phillips is in the process of earning a doctorate in P-20 leadership at Murray State University. Prior to her time with Ashland Independent, she earned a bachelor’s degree in family and consumer sciences from Marshall University in West Virginia before taking a role as the Family Resource and Youth Services Center coordinator at Greenup County from 2008 to 2013.
Phillips said one of the things she loves the most about her career as an educator is the connection she has with students.
“As a family consumer sciences teacher who teaches a pathway, I am blessed that a lot of the times I have the students for at least three years, so I really make those connections,” she said. “I love the connections. I love making a difference. I love being that teacher that 10 years later, students send you an announcement that they just had their first baby, or they decided to switch their education.”
Phillips’ tenure on the KBE began July 1 and will continue until June 30, 2027. She is the sixth non-voting teacher member of the KBE, following Alfonso De Torres Núñez (Jefferson County Public Schools), Lawrence McCrobie (Jefferson County Public Schools), Alissa Riley (Christian County Schools), Joanna Stevens (Garrard County Schools) and Allison Slone (Rowan County Schools).
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