Worley served on many commissions across the state of Alabama as an advocate for educators and women. She taught for 25 years in the Decatur School System, and served two terms as the president of the
Alabama Education Association (AEA) from 1983-1984 and 1995-1997. She won various teaching awards including Teacher of the Year; a Teacher Hall of Fame nominee; honored by the Alabama Jaycees as Alabama’s Outstanding Young Educator; and
Good Housekeeping’s "100 Young Women of Promise." She was elected in 2013 by the
Alabama Democratic Party to be chairwoman of the party in the Republican-dominated state, having previously served as interim Chair since April 2013 and Vice Chair since January 2007. In July 2015, Worley, five other former AEA presidents, and former AEA Associate Executive Secretary
Joe L. Reed, accused the
National Education Association of violating its bylaws and overstepping its role in regards to the AEA.
Legal issues and removal as chair Worley was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury in March 2007 on five
misdemeanor and one
felony charge. The charges, resulting from an investigation by Alabama Attorney General
Troy King, accused Worley of soliciting support from five of her employees during her unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2006. A few days after the trial started, the presiding judge dropped the felony charge, and indefinitely postponed the trial of related misdemeanor charges. In October 2012, Worley pleaded guilty via a "best interest" plea on one misdemeanor count and agreed to pay a $100 fine. Worley's lawyers revealed a letter, sent by
State Treasurer Kay Ivey to her employees, soliciting campaign contributions for the 2008 presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney. Ivey was the Alabama chairwoman of Romney's campaign. Worley's lawyers pointed out that King had not prosecuted fellow Republican Ivey, as he had Worley. In August 2019, Worley and Randy Kelley, state party's deputy chair, were stripped of their credentials as members of the
Democratic National Committee for not complying with DNC demands for revisions to the Alabama Democratic Party's bylaws. On November 2, 2019, Worley was removed as the chair with a unanimous vote. ==Death==