Teresa Lawrence Phillips (born 1958) was the athletic director at Tennessee State University, a post she had held since 2001.
Nonetheless, she was named Lady Commodore Athlete of the Year in 1980, and also won the Nashville Civitans' Sportsmanship Award in 1979 and 1980.
She was working as an insurance broker in Atlanta when Vanderbilt's first full-time women's coach, Phil Lee, asked her to come back to Nashville as a part-time assistant.
She was hired as head coach at Division III Fisk, also in Nashville, in 1984, and tallied a record of 62–38 in five years, winning two Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles.
Richardson resigned a few weeks later, and Phillips named Lewis interim coach for the rest of the season.