Amelia Mays Woods graduated from Winthrop College in 1983 in Physical Education teaching. Immediately after her graduation from Winthrop, she enrolled at the University of Tennessee. After completing her MS degree at UT, she began her teaching career in her hometown at Newberry High School in Newberry, SC. While at Newberry, she taught physical education and coached tennis, track, and cheerleading. She entered the PhD program at the University of South Carolina in Instruction and Curriculum in Physical Education in 1986. After completing her PhD in 1988, she taught at Columbia College from 1988 to 1992, moving on to Saint Olaf College in Northfield, MN with her husband Woody in 1992. In 1994, she began teaching at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, where she was promoted to full professor in 2002. In her spare time, Dr. Woods is the proud mother of Mary Elizabeth and Jack.
Dr. Woods has published over forty-eight articles in professional journals and made numerous presentations. She is an acknowledged scholar in the areas of motivating teacher change, mentoring, and teacher education. Her research has appeared in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Journal of Human Movement Studies, Teaching Elementary Physical Education, The Physical Educator, and The Journal of Teaching in Physical Education to name just a few. She has co-authored a number of studies with such celebrated researchers as Steven Silverman, Stephen Cone, Theresa Purcell, and Peter Werner.
She has been an invited presenter at the Share the Wealth Conference in Jekyll Island, GA, the Florida State University Sport Administration and Physical Education Conference, and the North Central Association Meeting. In addition to her presentations at state, district, and national AAHPERD conventions, Dr. Woods has presented at the American Educational Research Association, the Society of Utopian Studies, and the Association International des Ecoles Superieures d'Education Physique World Sport Science Congress. Indiana State acknowledged her contributions to teacher education by giving her the Howard Richardson Award for her research efforts.
Dr. Amelia May Woods is universally respected for her expertise in teacher education throughout the world. Her contributions to the research base in teacher education through her research, writing, and presentations make her one of the most productive scholars in the discipline. Her willingness to ask difficult questions and to investigate these questions through rigorous scientific inquiry has contributed to improved teacher education in physical education.