 Oden then moved back into the publishing world, editing math and science textbooks for Appleton-Century-Crofts and then Holt, Rinehart and Winston.She took graduate courses at New York University from 1969–1971, eventually joining the faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she progressed from assistant professor to full professor before her retirement in 1996.Oden mainly taught creative writing courses while at the UMBC as well as pursuing scholarly research on Charles Chesnutt and Charlotte Forten Grimké.