Mid Western Regional Director

Education, church, community service, family and sorority have always been important to the new Mid-Western Regional Director Twyla Woods-Buford. Professionally, Twyla is a retired educator who began her career in the Des Moines Public Schools as a teacher associate. After earning her Bachelors, Masters and Education Specialist degrees from Drake University, she served in all aspects of education including teacher, principal, Assistant Director of Elementary Education, Associate Superintendent of Human Resources and Chief of Staff. Her professional experience is evident in her nurturing and guiding presence and welcomed in Alpha Kappa Alpha. She retired from the Des Moines Public School District in 2011 after 40 years of dedicated service.

Twyla is a Silver Star and Life Member with 40 years of uninterrupted active service, embracing lifelong sisterhood and membership. She has served on the chapter, regional and international levels of our Sorority. As a chapter member she has served as Basileus, Anti-Basileus, Graduate Advisor, Grammateus and Tamiouchos. She has served as Regional Cluster Coordinator for four years and on multiple Regional committees. On the international level she served on the Standards Committee and most recently served on the International Connection Committee.

Twyla has taken her belief in “Service to All Mankind” to the community. She has served as President of Blacks in Management, Inc. and Chairman of the Willkie House Board of Directors. She was Chairman and Executive Board member of the Education Committee of the Des Moines Branch of the NAACP and is currently a Life Member. Twyla has also served on the Morris Scholarship Fund Board, Polk County Sales Tax Board and is a member of the Ivy Community and Education Foundation. She enjoys performing with the Langston Hughes Community Players and serving as secretary.

As a dedicated member of Corinthian Baptist Church of Des Moines, Iowa, Twyla served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees; Director and Co-producer of the radio ministry and as church parliamentarian for 17 years.

Twyla is a legacy whose family is enjoying its fourth generation of Alpha Kappa Alpha women. Twyla’s mother, Fay R. Winters, her daughter Andrea Woods Muhammad and her granddaughter Carissa Woods are all Alpha Kappa Alpha women. She hopes to make her new great-granddaughter the fifth generation of legacy. Her son, Virgil M. Woods, is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Senior Pastor of First AME Church, Gary Indiana.

She is currently a member of Beta Omega Chapter in Kansas City, Missouri where she enjoys retirement, dedicates her time to her church, Friendship Baptist Church and her Honey-Do, Southern University alumnus, Robert Buford.

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