After teaching in the public school system of Robeson County for 27 years, she joined the faculty at Fayetteville State University.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors for her work in human rights and education, in 2011, she was inducted into the North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame.
[1][3] That fall she began attending Meredith College in Raleigh, but after 3 years of study, left in 1955 to marry James R. Roberts in Detroit, Michigan.
[1][4] In 1965, she left teaching and began working on community empowerment and development programs for minorities, rural areas, and women with the U.S. Department of Labor.
She became a founding member of the Lumbee Regional Development Association and worked with the tribal government to create programs to meet the educational, political and socio-economic needs of [1] In 1972, Dial married Noah Woods and returned to teaching in the public schools.
[9] The following year, she was presented with the Leo Reano Memorial Award from the National Education Association for her human and civil rights leadership for American Indians.
[10] Woods returned to school in 1991, to pursue a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which she completed in 2001.