A Professor of English, Dr. Woolley received her B.A. from Augustana College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

She is author of American Voices of the Chicago Renaissance (Northern Illinois University Press), "Racial and Ethnic Semiosis in Mitsuye Yamada's `Mrs. Higashi Is Dead'" (MELUS), "Vachel Lindsay's Crusade for Cultural Literacy" (MidAmerica), "From Chicago Renaissance to Chicago Renaissance: The Poetry of Fenton Johnson" (Langston Hughes Review), "Two Chicago Renaissances with Harlem Between Them" (Other Renaissances), and "Richard Wright's Dogged Pursuit of his Place in the Natural World" (ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment).

Dr. Woolley teaches courses in American literature, women's literature, composition, and Environmental Studies. Her hobbies include bird watching, hiking, bicycling, and knitting.