Staff Spotlight: Kevin Phillips, Senior Web Developer
“I help drive operational efficiency by trying to find opportunities to replace manual workflows with scalable, automated solutions across business units.”
This month, we spoke with Kevin Phillips, Senior Web Developer. Kevin works tirelessly to keep the Academy’s websites and related resources up and running. When they go down, Kevin is the guy running to fix them. Even on a Friday night.
How long have you been at the Academy?
It will be 14 years this October.
What do you do as Senior Web Developer?
Kevin and his brother, Tom (left), hiking in Zion National Park, Utah, in 2022.
Beyond development, I help drive operational efficiency by trying to find opportunities to replace manual workflows with scalable, automated solutions across business units. I also serve as a technical resource for staff, providing training and guidance on emerging tools, systems, and industry best practices.
Tell us about one of your most memorable moments working for the Academy.
Harry Biddle and I still reminisce about this one. In 2012, all our websites were hosted on physical servers located at Academy headquarters. There was no cloud infrastructure. I had been with the Academy for about a month when a former IT colleague informed me that, during the previous night's backup process, three of the websites I was responsible for had been accidentally deleted, along with all their files. Naturally, I asked about restoring from a backup, but I was told we didn't have one.
As a result, I spent the next two days in the server room rebuilding the sites directly on the server. This approach, while not ideal, was the fastest way to develop and test in that environment. The conditions were challenging: the room was kept at roughly 55-60 degrees by high-powered cooling systems to prevent the servers from overheating, but this allowed us to restore functionality as quickly as possible.
It was an early and very practical lesson in both system limitations and the importance of reliable backups.
How did you get involved in your area of work/expertise?
In college, I majored in Athletic Training before switching majors and graduating with a degree in Sports Management from St. Leo University in Florida. I had a Sports Management-related job lined up in Florida after graduation, but life happened, and I ended up moving to Virginia. I couldn't find a job in the Sports Management field when I got to Virginia, so I took a sales job with an Internet Service Provider in 1999, right at the height of the dot-com bubble. I didn’t like being in sales, but I figured this internet technology was going to be around for a while. I quit my sales job, and since I like to build things, I enrolled in a six-month web development course at George Mason University. The rest is history.
What is something readers might be surprised to know about you?
Kevin and his sons, Nolan (left), and Aaron (right), at the beach when they were younger.
Dogs or cats?
Dogs over cats. I don’t own one anymore, but I’m happy to pet all my neighborhood dogs. All the fun, without the expense!
