Meet the Speaker: Phyllis Washington Stone ’80
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Ms. Phyllis Washington Stone ’80 is self-employed as a Leadership Coach and Consultant for Stepping Stones Professional Consulting and for TAI, Inc. As a leadership coach and consultant, Phyllis builds coaching and team effectiveness skills for clients across several industries and sectors. Prior to her current work, Ms. Stone had a 25-year career in Global Marketing at Merck & Company, Inc. There, she helped the company establish itself in the global diabetes market and launched Merck’s first diabetes product portfolio to become a multibillion-dollar business for the company.
Post-retirement from Merck, as a consultant Phyllis led women’s health and vaccine product launch efforts in India. As a Merck Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy consultant, she helped lead strategy development and developed and launched Merck’s global volunteerism program (including its company policies) which allowed company employees everywhere to engage in paid volunteer opportunities. These opportunities were in communities around the world for as much as 6 months, with charities like Save the Children and United Way.
Phyllis currently serves as a board member for Building Better Futures, Inc., a non-profit affordable housing group and an advisory board member of the New Jersey Reentry Corporation Center for Spirituality. She is a 1980 graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelors degree in American Studies. She studied at the Bell Leadership Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and earned an Executive MBA from St. Joseph’s University. Ms. Stone has served on the Advisory Council for the Mendoza College of Business, as Secretary of the National Monogram Club, served on the former National Alumni Schools Committee Advisory Board for Undergraduate Admissions, and is a member of the founding group of the Black Alumni of Notre Dame who met with Fr. Hesburgh back in 1985. Phyllis Washington Stone resides in South Carolina with her husband Jim Stone, a 1981 graduate of the University of Notre Dame.