Prof. Lisa Phillips

Provost and Vice-President Academic 

Lisa Philipps was appointed Provost and VP Academic in 2018 and she will serve an additional five year term between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2027. 

Professor Philipps joined York in 1996 and is a Professor of Law in Osgoode Hall Law School. She holds an LLB from the University of Toronto and an LLM from York, and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1988. Her research encompasses taxation law and policy, fiscal policy, higher education policy, and feminist legal theory. 

Prior to her appointment as Provost, Professor Philipps held a number of key positions here at York, including Assistant Dean (First Year) and Associate Dean (Research, Graduate Studies & Institutional Relations) at Osgoode Hall Law School. At the institutional level, in 2014, as part of the Academic and Administrative Program Review process, she chaired the Academic Task Force, which offered important recommendations on the quality and sustainability of academic and research programs, thereby providing guidance to academic planners across the University. 

She has also served as Chair of the (then) Senate Academic Policy and Planning Committee (2005–2006), and from 2011 to 2014 was Associate Vice-President Research, with responsibility for supporting research intensification across the University and for liaising with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and community research partners. 

Beyond York University, Professor Philipps has provided expert legal advice to a range of bodies, including the Ontario Ministry of Finance as Special Counsel in 2015. In 2015–16, she served as Interim Dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University, a new law school with a mandate to strengthen the Indigenous bar and prepare lawyers to practice in northern and rural communities.