Louisiana’s former health secretary who spent months advising Gov. Jeff Landry on health care matters now has the highest publicly funded salary of any woman in state higher education.  

LSU agreed to pay Courtney Phillips $475,000 annually as its vice president of health affairs and chief health officer, a job that had been vacant for years. Her pay is the seventh-largest publicly funded salary at LSU and the 13th largest among all state higher education and executive branch employees, according to state Civil Service Commission data from March. 

The university provided information about Phillips’ salary to the Illuminator in response to a public records request. The LSU Board of Supervisors must sign off on her compensation before she becomes a permanent employee. She started work this past Monday. 

LSU President William Tate said Phillips was hired to “maximize the system’s healthcare-related financial well-being, enhance operational efficiency, develop new revenue streams, and leverage strengths across campuses.” 

“It’s an investment in talent,” LSU spokesperson Todd Woodward, who works for Tate, said. 

“Our practice with all high-level positions is to research similar jobs (when possible) across the country. Her compensation is actually lower than the pay for similar positions (some up to $1 million),” Woodward said in a statement.

Phillips’ pay is one of the highest in all of state government. She makes more money than Southern University System President Dennis Shields and Louisiana Community Technical College System President Monty Sullivan. 

“I think it’s extreme,” LSU Board of Supervisors member Jay Blossman said of Phillips’ salary, noting it was unusual for someone who does not oversee any campuses to be paid so much. He intends to raise questions when Phillips’ confirmation comes before the board.

LSU coaches Brian Kelly and Kim Mulkey earn considerably more than Phillips, but only because private funding comprises the bulk of their pay. The portions of Kelly’s and Mulkey’s salaries that are state-funded are $400,000 each, less than what Phillips makes. 

LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward’s state-funded pay is $525,000, according to his contract, but he also receives money from private sources to boost his income.

Other LSU personnel listed with higher pay than Phillips’ in the database include five men: Dr. David Guzick, chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport ($900,000); Tate ($725,000); Dr. Philip Schauer, a professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center ($523,611); John Kirwan, executive director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center ($475,860); and Roy Haggerty, LSU vice president and provost ($475,602). 

As a conservative Republican, Gov. Landry is generally critical of how Louisiana higher education institutions spend their money.

“I don’t want money going to higher education,” the governor declared in February when he tried to block a proposed multibillion-dollar health care foundation from giving grants to almost all Louisiana universities and colleges.

When it comes to Phillips, however, Landry’s office declined to comment this week on her new role or salary at LSU, even though she has been helping the administration with health care policy matters in recent months.

Phillips served as secretary over the Louisiana Department of Health from 2020 to 2023 under Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, but also has extensive experience working for Republicans. She did not return phone calls and text messages for comment this week. 

Before joining the Edwards administration, Phillips served as chief executive officer of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and executive commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services. Earlier in her career, she worked as a state health care agency leader under Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. 

She is considered one of the foremost experts on public health care funding in Louisiana, particularly on issues related to the state Medicaid program. 

As health secretary for Edwards, Phillips was responsible for carrying out the Democratic governor’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent vaccine campaign, which Landry often criticized.

Nevertheless, Landry tapped Phillips to serve on his health care advisory transition team after he won the October governor’s race and was preparing to take over state government. 

Once he took office in early January, Phillips continued to work with Landry’s leadership at the state health department, sometimes showing up to the state health department building to help in person, according to three people with knowledge of the agency. The three people did not want to comment on the record about Phillips’ work with the health department for fear of professional repercussions.

A state ethics law blocks Phillips, as a former state agency head, from being paid as a private contractor or consultant for Louisiana’s health department until next spring, when she is two years removed from her time as health secretary. 

Phillips is not prohibited from working for a public college or university.

Other executives at state agencies have also ended up at Louisiana’s universities. Kimberly Lewis served as Edwards’ revenue secretary for six years before leaving to become LSU’s chief administrative officer in 2022. 

State Rep. Jack McFarland, who oversees Louisiana’s state budget for lawmakers, said he likes Phillips personally and found her to be an excellent health care secretary, but her salary gives him pause, especially as Louisiana heads into a financial downturn next year.

“It does concern me that we are doing this at a time when everyone is asking for additional revenue,” said McFarland, R-Jonesboro.