S. Colby Woods

S. Colby Woods is a doctoral student in education policy at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on absenteeism and on broader questions of student engagement and access in K–12 education systems. He is a Perry World House graduate fellow, where he collaborates with interdisciplinary scholars to connect education research to global policymaking. Woods has been a senior research specialist at the Tennessee Education Research Alliance at Vanderbilt University, where he worked on large-scale education data and policy analysis; a research assistant at Vanderbilt; a policy and research intern at the Learning Policy Institute; and a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Germany, where he supported classroom instruction and cross-cultural exchange. Woods received his MPP in education policy from Vanderbilt University.

updated 2026