Phyllis Jeffers-Coly

Phyllis Jeffers-Coly is a North Carolina native, certified 600-hour yoga instructor, and the co-founder and co-owner of Diasporic Soul and Tangor Café, which she and her husband, Eddy Coly, established in 2016 to offer heritage and healing experiences that integrate culture and contemplative practices. Phyllis collaborated with Cincinnati-based artists Gee Horton and Angela Franklin to offer art as a healing resource in the Cincinnati community. And, in partnership with Jamma Health, Diasporic Soul has been holding space for Black men seeking peace of mind in this lifetime through The Peace of Mind Project.

Phyllis is the author of We Got Soul; We Can Heal: Overcoming Racial Trauma Through Leadership, and Community and Resilience; “When Grandma Comes to Visit: Exploring How Communion with Our Ancestors & Nature Deepens Our Capacity for Healing, Restoration, Resilience, and Resistance” published in The Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, Vol. 9, No. 1, Transcendent Wisdom and Transformative Action: Reflections from Black Contemplatives (2022); and “Showing up Audacious and Bad Ass from the Edges and on the Margins Like My Ancestors” published in Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education (2024). She is also coauthor of "They Are Coming to Get Something: A Qualitative Study of African American Male Community College Students’ Education Abroad Experience in Senegal, West Africa" in Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.

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