Eleanor Wakefield has a PhD in poetry and poetics. Her dissertation, "Extending the Line: Early Twentieth-Century American Women's Sonnets," reads poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sara Teasdale, and Helene Johnson. She has taught writing and literature at the University of Oregon since 2010, and elsewhere since 2008. She is the co-editor of the "Politics of Sports" casebook/textbook. 

She also serves as the secretary for United Academics.