GOVERNMENT
Willis was a career public schoolteacher, retiring from the Thornton Township High Schools District in Harvey, Ill., in 2021. “I do remember when Arizona ranked very high in education and we are not where we once was,” he said. “Given the fact that I’ve been in education for 20-plus years, and I taught from kindergarten through college, I have a good idea as to what is required to get back on the page that we may be able to really compete globally for the jobs that are globally demanding.” Willis said he was qualified to teach when, in 1994, he obtained his master’s degree from Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. The school’s registrar, Arlene Clarke, told InMaricopa she “noted no record of this person as a graduate” in a March 10 email. Crazy Little Thing Called Larry Love Willis says he went on to earn his doctor title, one he displays proudly on all his election documents, at Larry Love University in Muskogee, Okla., in 2018. He’s now the Dean of Theology at that university, he says. The school’s entity status expired in 2016, according to the Oklahoma Secretary of State. “It means the LLC is not in good standing with the State of Oklahoma due to a late Annual Certificate,” the secretary of state said in a statement. The university’s most recent graduation ceremony was in 2020, its website states. When Willis graduated in 2018, however, the university’s address was a vacant office building. That year, the building had been most recently occupied by several defunct outpatient medical facilities, according to brokers for the property. Larry Love University does offer doctoral degrees, according to a document listing its 38 certificate and degree programs. In the same document, the university also claims it will award graduate degrees for $11,700 to students who haven’t completed any credit hours or taken any courses if they have “prior learning experience.” Larry Love University was never accredited by an accepted accrediting agency, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In Willis’ native Illinois and 28 other states, the use of unaccredited degrees is not allowed. Arizona, however, has no such restriction. Calls and emails to Larry Love University didn’t go through. Its website contains mostly broken links, save for pages where you can make donations or payments. The application
Larry Love University is tied to this address in Muskogee, Okla., an abandoned medical office building.
page is still functional, too, which allows students to apply for scholarships — and next to the U.S. Veteran’s Scholarship is the Major Leon’ Willis Scholarship. It’s on this website where Willis is pictured, clad in what’s ostensibly a U.S. Air Force uniform, with a caption reading, “US Airforce Major Dr. Leon’ Willis.” CAP and gown In his documents filed with the city, he goes by many variously punctuated aliases — Leon, Leron, Le’on, Léon, Leon’ and Le-on — but military records obtained in a public records
In this photo posted to the website of the university where Willis serves as dean, he’s identified as “US Airforce Major.”
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THE WEIGHT OF THE TITLE
Just ask Maj. Dr. Jennifer Waterman, an Air Force flight surgeon in Maine who offered her medical expertise across the wing in October when she responded to the state’s deadliest mass shooting in history. It was the tenth- deadliest shooting in American history when Robert Card slaughtered 18 children and adults at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Me. Waterman saw most of the casualties pass through her ER doors and desperately tried to save their lives.
The horror of their injuries was so extreme, she likened it to the savagery she witnessed on deployment during the Afghanistan conflict. “The injuries that came in weren’t something you usually see in a civilian hospital,” she said. “The weapon used in this setting was much more similar to something you would see in a combat zone, far more destructive
Major Doctors are vanish- ingly rare in the U.S. For example, there are only 620 airmen in the entire country who can claim that title, U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Deana M. Heitzman told InMaricopa . It’s among the most prestigious titles an American can obtain, both because of the tremendous amount of back-breaking work it takes to earn it and the gravity it carries.
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and there were many people I worked with who had never seen injuries like that.”
44765 W. Hathaway Ave., Maricopa, AZ 85138 We deliver at Banner Casa Grande & Banner Ocotillo Chandler
InMaricopa.com | May 2024
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