CMOP Hires K-12 Program Coordinator

08/20/08 Portland, Ore.

The Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction has hired Elizabeth “Liz” Woody to the position of K-12 Program Coordinator.

Woody comes to CMOP from Ecotrust where she worked as Director of Indigenous Programs. There she was involved in the Ecotrust Award for Indigenous Leadership, one of the most important resources for supporting tribal leaders within the lands and waters of Salmon Nation.

Woody will assist CMOP in developing student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students’ natural interest in the ocean.

“Liz will help me develop programs that engage Native American students in STEM,” said Karen Wegner, Director of K-12 Education. “One of her first projects is to perform a regional and national survey of program tools that effectively combine a STEM education and indigenous ways of knowing.”

The author and poet of several books, Woody has been active teaching workshops, mentoring, and lecturing throughout the country. She received an American Book Award for her book Hand into Stone from the Before Columbus Foundation. She was a professor of creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Arizona.

Woody holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities with an emphasis in English from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and is part way through the Masters of Public Administration degree at the Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University with a dual emphasis Natural Resources Administration and Environmental Policy. Woody assumed her post at CMOP on August 18.