About

Dr. E Phelps

PhD, Medical Sociology · Case Western Reserve University Sociology Professor · Power Yoga Teacher · Reiki & Intuitive Practitioner Scholar-Activist · Policy Advocate · Quantitative Researcher

My story

The practice found me in graduate school.

I received my RYT during graduate school at Case Western Reserve University, where I went on to earn both my MA and PhD in Sociology — with concentrations in social inequality and medical sociology. The mat and the dissertation were never separate for me. They were always asking the same question: what does it cost a body to carry what this world demands of it?

My academic work centers on people within the margins — particularly women of color — and the physiological realities of that location. I am a quantitative researcher, a sociology professor, a policy advocate, and a strategic planner. I bring all of that into every room I enter, including the studio.

My yoga practice is demanding and athletic, grounded in the somatic intelligence I've developed through years of study and thousands of hours teaching. It is also deeply intuitive — held and guided by spiritual work that I do not separate from the physical.

"My ideal clients are people and teams with a vision for helping humankind. My work is to help them sustain it — to tend to the body and the spirit so the mission doesn't consume the person carrying it."

The practice

More than a pose.

Over 2,000 students across studios, classrooms, conference rooms, living rooms, and retreats have taught me that no two bodies or learners are the same.

But the asana, the physical posture, is only one of eight limbs of yoga. Patanjali's full path also includes ethics, self-discipline, breath, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and absorption. You can see that in my research, in my activism, in the intuitive work I do. For me yoga has never been just about what the body can do. It has always been about tapping into my humanity and my oneness with source. I take pride in teaching a diverse set of learners how to engage in a strong athletic practice. And I take equal pride in holding space for everything yoga actually is.

The mat is a small portion of the larger work I am doing to help people live in their own universes of love.

Credentials & work

The full picture

Education

PhD & MA, Sociology
Case Western Reserve University
Social inequality · Medical sociology

Teaching

Sociology Professor
200HR RYT Power Yoga
2,000+ students taught

Research & policy

Quantitative Researcher
Policy Advocate
Strategic planning · Faculty equity

Spiritual practice

Reiki Practitioner
Intuitive · Tarot & Oracle
Spirit team conduit

Community & activism

Showing up in every room.

My work has never been confined to the studio or the classroom. I have testified before state legislators to protect community college faculty. I have brought somatic practice into academic conferences. I have taught movement as a form of fundraising and resistance — for abortion access, for LGBTQIA+ communities, for groups doing the hard, necessary work of keeping people alive and free.

I work in close collaboration with women of color organizations — including the Ellipsis Institute for Womxn of Color in the Academy — because I believe that wellness is political, that the body is a site of both oppression and liberation, and that we cannot do the work if we do not tend to ourselves first.