Phelps, who is African American, is known for her contributions to womanist theology.

Phelps was born in Alabama, the youngest of six children of a Catholic household.

[1] Phelps pursued her PhD in systematic theology from Catholic University of America, publishing her dissertation in 1989 as The Mission Ecclesiology of John R.

[2] She has taught at Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, Loyola University, Chicago and Seattle University, and for eight years as Director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies and the Katharine Drexel Professor of Systematic Theology at Xavier University in New Orleans.

[4] In 2010, Phelps received the Ann O'Hara Graff Memorial Award from the Women's Seminar in Constructive Theology of the Catholic Theological Society of America.