Dr. Phelps is a native of Arkansas reared in Denton, Texas, a city in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan region.  He earned a bachelor's degree from Henderson State University in Arkansas, where he double-majored in History and Speech, and participated in intercollegiate debate competition.  He earned Master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Iowa, both in the discipline of Communication Studies, and completed additional graduate and professional studies at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law and the University of Houston.

He is active in post-graduate professional development, including completion of intergenerational and Xtreme Aging training certificates from the Macklin Intergenerational Institute in Ohio.  Before coming to Lindsey Wilson College in 1999, he taught communication courses and coached debate teams at four other colleges and universities, where his teams consistently competed in national tournaments and placed second to Harvard University in the 1985 National Debate Tournament.  He has conducted workshops and delivered scholarly presentations at numerous professional meetings and published articles in the Arkansas Business and Economic Review, Journal of the Economic and Business Historical Society, Iowa Journal of Literary Studies, Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, and Public Relations Review.  An entry for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture and book review for the Oral History Review are forthcoming in 2010 and 2011.

Reflecting his wide range of scholarly interests and commitment to interdisciplinary studies, he is currently a member of the American Communication Association, Anthropologists & Sociologists of Kentucky, Arkansas Historical Association, Kentucky Communication Association, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, Oral History Association, and Southern Regional Honors Council; and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education.  When not working, Dr. Phelps enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading good books and watching classic movies.