Phillis Oeters has always been a community-minded individual, and so chairing the civic-minded Orange Bowl Committee, which organizes a fanfest at Bayfront Park and two huge youth sporting events, is right up her alley. She says the legacy she’d like to leave “is elevating the community service part of it because we are really a role model across the country in terms of what we do in our community for youth.”

As only the second woman to lead the committee in more than seven decades, Ms. Oeters is also a trailblazer for women in sports – or as she calls it “one of the last glass ceilings” that need to be broken. “It’s exciting to be a woman leading the Orange Bowl because I think that across the nation is where I see more of a difference than right here at home. At home and in the committee I am accepted very much so,” she says. “But across the country they find this a little odd because on some of those committees/football committees they have not even allowed women to become a part of it yet.”
In her day job, Ms. Oeters spends much of her time in advocacy – fighting for Baptist’s and South Florida’s causes in government. “It’s like playing chess,” she says of the challenge of getting legislators to see her points-of view. And the big discussion nationwide, healthcare reform, is at the top of her list. “At Baptist Health, we think that there needs to be healthcare reform,” she says. “There needs to be healthcare reform in terms of changing the system right now. There are many things that could be done to help with the economic drain.”

Ms. Oeters discussed her passion for community service, advocacy and her first Orange Bowl experience with Miami Today staff writer Scott E. Pacheco at the Orange Bowl Committee offices in Miami Lakes.