Graduated summa cum laude from University of Minnesota in 1939.

Ph.D in Anthropology from Columbia University.

• Helen Codere is known for her work with the Kwakwaka'wakw people of coastal British Columbia, Canada, known formerly as the "Kwakiutl."
• She dedicated conducting field work on the Indians of British Columbia and in Rwanda, among the Tutsi, Twa and Hutu societies.
• She was also a professor at Brandeis University, teaching anthropology until she became Dean of Brandeis's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.