Jean Allen, daughter of John M. and Catherine Carrie Weller Arnold Allen, was born in Knoxville (Knox County), Tennessee, on December 10, 1918. She earned her bachelor's degree in home economics at the University of Tennessee in 1940 and married Dr. Leonard J. Phillips (1900-1954) in Knoxville on August 4, 1943. The 1950 federal census lists the couple as residents of Chattanooga (Hamilton County), Tennessee, with Jean Phillips working as a homemaker. Phillips returned to school and work following her husband's death, earning her master's degree at the University of Tennessee with the thesis "Student Personnel Supervision at the University of Tennessee Cafeteria" in 1955. She worked as an instructor at the university from 1954 until 1958, when she was hired as associate professor at Purdue University. She earned her doctorate at Purdue in 1966. That same year, she became an associate professor at University of Tennessee at Martin, a position in which she served until 1969, when she joined the Department of Human Nutrition and Foods (later the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise) at Virginia Tech. During her tenure, Phillips co-authored a college textbook (Foods (sixth and seventh eds., with Gladys Vail) and wrote several other publications relating to food and nutrition. Phillips was named Virginia's outstanding home economics teacher for 1973/1974, and received the Wine Award for Excellence in Teaching at Virginia Tech in 1975. She retired in 1985. Jean A. Phillips died in Birmingham (Jefferson County), Alabama, on July 16, 2003, and was buried in Old Gray Cemetery, Knoxville.