Staff highlights

What are some of your hobbies?

To begin, we wanted to get to know Dr. Woodman outside of school. When asked about some hobbies, Dr. Woodman responded “Horses!”. Her love for horses is still present to this day. She discussed how she adopted a pony in 2018 after the birth of her second child, which was what “reignited her childhood passion”. She went on to discuss how she now has two mini horses and even a former racehorse, which are all rescues. In her community she has actually given the opportunity for children in her area with disabilities to ride horses as a non-profit. She mentioned that as a child she grew up riding with a disability and was happy to give children in her area the same opportunity. 

Grew up riding horses with a disability, now offers the same opportunity for children in her community 

What made you want to work in this field and how did you get to where you are now in your career?

Next, I went on to discuss her early career and how she got to where she is today at UMass. As college students, it is often very frightening to think of the future and begin deciding our career path. We often think that we have to make that decision now and what we decide is set in stone. However, as Dr. Woodman notes, this is definitely not the case. Dr. Woodman went into college firmly believing that she would be a French teacher in the future and thus studied French Literature as an undergraduate in Quebec. She discussed how in her Junior year of high school she lived with a host family in France which sparked her interest in French Literature. In her undergraduate career she also majored in Psychology which was where she found her love for the field of developmental psychology. Straight out of graduating college, while working in a French restaurant, she was also volunteering for a therapeutic riding program which ignited her fascination with the interaction among family members. Due to her interest in developmental psychology and education, Boston College provided her with the perfect program that combined both of these- “Applied developmental and educational psychology”. At BC she was lucky to work on a research project with Dr. Penny Hauser-Cram. Dr. Woodman noted that this project was one of the longest running studies of raising children with disabilities in the US. Once she finished her PhD, she researched lifelong outcomes for individuals and their families with disabilities. More specifically: Autism, Down syndrome, and Fragile X. 

Double majored in French Literature and Psychology where she found her love for Developmental psychology. She went on to Boston College in a program of Applied Developmental and Educational psychology

What drew you to Umass?

As Dr. Woodman noted, this position was unlike any other. This position gave her the opportunity to teach solely on topics that she cared about. The position was perfect for her as the job description was looking for a candidate who would teach about families raising children with disabilities. As Dr. Woodman noted in the previous section, this was what her research focused on. Unfortunately, during the interview someone falsely mentioned there was a train that ran from Northampton to Montreal which definitely added to the draw for Umass. Though, she is extremely happy here in Amherst. 

Position gave her the opportunity to teach exclusively on topics that she cared about