Kate Wooddell has been an elementary grades and secondary English teacher since 1984, serving in public and parochial schools in Illinois and Florida as well as for the Department of Defense Dependents School in Sardinia, Italy. She also holds special endorsements in gifted education and middle grades Language Arts, and she worked as a curriculum developer for the Duval County Public Schools.

Kate is a veteran teacher with the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. She taught in the Republic of the Marshall Islands as a WorldTeach volunteer, and has been the recipient of many professional awards and honors, including a three-week trip to Japan with the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program. She has also worked as a National Park Service Interpretation Ranger/Naturalist sharing cultural and natural history stories with visitors in Glacier National Park, Montana. She has been a guest artist in numerous schools and Writer-in-Residence at Havermale High School and their Medicine Wheel Academy, in Spokane, Washington.

Kate is a former professional clown, occupational therapy “play lady,” community college Service-learning Coordinator, job coach for developmentally disabled adults, and was a founding member of the Chicago Storytellers League.