Phyllis Magrab is Director of the Georgetown University Development Center (which she founded). She is also a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a child psychologist. There is an endowed professorship, the Phyllis R. Magrab Distinguished Professorship, named for her. She is Co-Principal Investigator of the National Rehabilitation and Training Center for Children with Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs, a research consortium funded by the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research. She also directs Georgetown's initiative to network U.S. higher education institutions that are involved in working toward the goal of universal primary education.