In March 2016, she was the first Native American to be named poet laureate of Oregon by Governor Kate Brown.
After studying at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from 1980 to 1983,[3] she earned a bachelor's degree in humanities with an emphasis in English from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
Woody has worked with the Telluride Native Writer's Forum, reading, panels, and workshops for Northwest Wordcraft Circle, Neah Bay, WA and Newport, Oregon; Southwest Native American High School Students, Telluride, CO; Young Writer's Conference and Performance, readings, illustration, poetry and short story workshops for Northwest Native American high school writers at Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak, Washington; Grey Hills Academy Diné Fine Arts and Drama Festival, Tuba City, Arizona; and Flight of the Mind Writing Workshops for Women, McKenzie Bridge, Oregon.
[4] She has shown in "Submuloc Wohs/Columbus Show" and "For the Seventh Generation: Native American Artists Counter the Quincentenary", Columbus, New York.
In Oregon, Woody served on the Northwest Native American Arts Services Task Force, sponsored by the Eastern Oregon Regional Arts Council and was one of the founding members of the Northwest Native American Writers Association.
She was selected to be an apprentice in the Oregon Folk Arts Master-Apprenticeship, to learn traditional basket weaving from Margaret Jim-Pennah.
She also served on the inaugural advisory board for Lewis and Clark College Graduate School of Education and Counseling conference, "Indigenous Ways of Knowing",[7] and as a leadership circle advisor for the Ford Foundation's feasibility study on a national Native American arts and culture fund.
She completed the Master of Public Administration Program in 2012 (emphasis in Environmental Policy, and Natural Resources Management) at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.