Foundation Welcomes Third New Board Member in 2017

We are pleased to welcome a brand new member to the RLS Foundation's Board of Directors, Carla Rahn Phillips, PhD!

Dr. Phillips was born in Los Angeles, California. She earned her B.A. in History at nearby Pomona College in Claremont and her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees at New York University. She then joined the History Department at the University of Minnesota and taught there for more than 40 years, retiring in 2013 as the Union Pacific Professor in Comparative Early Modern History.

Her teaching and research have focused on Europe, with an emphasis on Spain and its overseas connections in the period from the late 15th to the late 18th centuries. Among her publications are The Struggle for the South Atlantic: The Armada of the Strait, 1581–84, editor and translator (London, 2016); The Treasure of the San José: Death at Sea in the War of the Spanish Succession (Baltimore, 2007); “Visualizing Imperium: The ‘Virgin of the Seafarers’ and Spain’s Self–Image in the Early Sixteenth Century,” Renaissance Quarterly, 58, No. 3 (Fall 2005): 815–856; "'The Life Blood of the Navy': Recruiting Sailors in Eighteenth–Century Spain," The Mariner's Mirror 87, No. 4 (November 2001): 420–445; "Time and Duration: A Model for the Economy of Early Modern Spain," American Historical Review 92 (June 1987): 531–62; and Six Galleons for the King of Spain: Imperial Defense in the Early Seventeenth Century (Baltimore, 1986).

In addition, Dr. Phillips has published three books and numerous articles with her husband, William D. Phillips, Jr., among them A Concise History of Spain (Cambridge, 2010, 2016); Spain's Golden Fleece: Wool Production and the Wool Trade from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth (Baltimore, 1997); and The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (Cambridge, 1992).

"A distinguished academic and scholar of international stature, Dr. Phillips would be an asset to any organization," said Linda Secretan, RLS Foundation support group leader, fellow board member and head of the board's Governance and Nomination Committee. "We are pleased and honored that she has chosen to join our board. We hope to tap into her experience and acumen to make some RLS Foundation history of our own."

Now retired and living in central Texas, Dr. Phillips continues her research and writing, as well as being active in several professional organizations. Over the years she has held major offices in the American Historical Association (15,000 members), the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, and the Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, among others.

She was diagnosed with RLS more than 20 years ago, but the symptoms are currently controlled with medication. She is very pleased to join the board of the RLS Foundation in order to participate in its important work.

Welcome to the team, Dr. Phillips!