Woodward L. Coleman graduated with honors as the president of his senior class at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. He attended Medical School at the University of Mississippi. This was followed by a five-year general surgery residency at the University of South Carolina. During his surgery residency, he also traveled for additional training with clinical rotations in Trauma Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Plastic Surgery at Emory University. While at Emory, he gained first-hand instruction in some of the earliest microsurgical reconstructions in history. Dr. Coleman was at Emory with the professors at the time when they were engineering and publishing the earliest techniques for the TRAM flap breast reconstruction and gained exceptional working knowledge of the anatomy of the abdominal wall in its use for the Tram Flap. This is now one of the most common breasts reconstruction procedures worldwide. Returning to Spartanburg, he took part in many of the first microsurgical reconstructions ever performed at his residency program.

During his tenure as Chief Resident in Surgery, he founded the first microsurgical laboratory at the University of South Carolina Spartanburg Regional Hospital Facility. Because of his
accomplishments and knowledge, he was one of only eight American and six internationalsurgeons chosen, from all over the world, for a fellowship in the prestigious Christine Kleinert Memorial Hand Surgery Fellowship in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the largest and most famous hand fellowship in the world. The caliber of that particular group of trainees speaks for themselves: One of his classmates, Dr. Warren Breidenbach, performed the first successful hand transplantation in U.S. History. Another of his classmates, Dr. Maria Semienow, is now famous for performing the first face transplant in U.S. History.

Dr. Coleman is a diplomat of the American Board of Plastic Surgery as well as being certified for additional qualifications in surgery of the Hand. Dr. Coleman is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the American Society for Plastic Surgeons, the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and the American Association of Hand Surgeons. He is also a member of the American Medical Society and the San Antonio Surgical Society.