Neal Woods is Professor and Vice-Chair in the Department of Political Science. His areas of specialization are bureaucracy, federalism, state government, and public policy, especially in the substantive areas of environmental policy, energy policy, and regulation. He has published over forty articles and chapters on these topics. His scholarship has won best dissertation, best conference paper, and best journal article awards from the American Political Science Association and its organized sections. His research appears in American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Policy Studies Journal, and many other journals.

Professor Woods is a member of the Editorial Advisory Council of Publius: The Journal of Federalism, the Editorial Board of State and Local Government Review, the National Center for Interstate Compacts Advisory Committee, the South Carolina Planning Education Advisory Committee, and the Academic Advisory Committee of the Levin Center State Oversight Academy.