CDR Linda Guadalupe Phipps, United States Navy (Ret.), ‘73

Linda Ann Guadalupe Phipps graduated in 1973 from Mount Saint Mary Academy. After completing Bachelor’s degrees in marine biology and English literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University, she served for 20 years in the United States Navy.

Over that time, she served in Washington, D.C.; Dam Neck, VA; Monterey, CA; Iselin, NJ; Tampa, FL; and Newport, RI.  Among her duties were training and recruitment, developing Navy-wide personnel policy, analyzing force structure, and designing and executing war games at the Naval War College. In 1988 Linda completed a Masters of Operations Research degree at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.

After retiring from the Navy in 1998, Linda was a systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD. Among her early contributions were designing and leading seminars for the Army-wide telemedicine network, the U.S. nuclear command and control architecture under President George W. Bush, and the Johns Hopkins Medicine public health surveillance and response system that later became the interactive dashboard used by Johns Hopkins to track and report COVID-19 cases nationwide in real-time. During the latter part of her time at APL, she led risk analysis of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System for the Missile Defense Agency. 

Until recently, Linda and her husband lived in Waldorf, MD. She volunteered at her parish at various times as an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, a Lector, a Religious Education teacher, and a member of the Parish Council. 

As an Arlington Lady, Linda volunteers monthly at the funerals of Navy veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. She participates in the honors ceremony of each funeral she attends, presenting a note of condolence and lending support to the bereaved. She considers this role a great privilege and continues to travel to Arlington each month to serve the families of deceased veterans.