Karla Woods was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee.  She graduated from Whitehaven High School, where she served as the Sports Editor her junior year and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook staff her senior year.

While a college student at East Tennessee State University, Woods got involved in many activities, which included producing her own one-hour exercise show and hosting her own music show on WETS-FM radio.  She also co-founded a university-recognized organization called Essence, to help young collegiate women with the transition to independent college life.  She graduated with a Bachelorʼs degree in Mass Communications and minor in Health Education.

Woods started her career in middle Tennessee as a Sports Writer with Lakeway Publishers, a regional group of newspapers that spanned from Murfreesboro to Knoxville, Tennessee.  Woods covered college football, basketball and all high school sports.  Seeing that her writing abilities were limitless, she began writing for the political beat as well as special interest stories.

When an opportunity for Woods to return home to Memphis presented itself, she jumped at the chance.  She was offered a position with ALSAC/St. Jude Childrenʼs Research Hospital as a marketer and fundraiser.  At ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude, Karla made great strides in growing an already successful Radio Marketing program by over 10% each year.  She championed a struggling Small Market radio program by raising participation over 40%.  Woods single-handedly took these stations on and brought many of them up to the caliber of a larger producing station, planning and coordinating each event.  She was also instrumental in developing the multicultural marketing efforts for ALSAC/St. Jude, specifically African-American marketing.  One such venture was the fraternity of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.  Woods and the St. Jude team secured a commitment from the fraternity and they eventually signed on to raise $500,000 for the organization.  Woods supported many other fundraising programs by traveling across the country and assisted regional staff with management of  events and sponsorship procurement.  Woods amassed over ten years of event planning and marketing prowess with ALSAC/St. Jude.  After resigning her stellar career at ALSAC/St. Jude, Woods began working as an independent event planner in the Memphis area.  She specialized in corporate and special events.  Shortly thereafter, Woods moved to the metro Phoenix, Arizona, area.  There, she continued planning and developing events for national nonprofit Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and event planning agency, Katherine Christensen & Associates.