Education

M.S., Clark Atlanta University

B.S. University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

Biography

On Jan. 12, 1982, I was born at Georgia Baptist Hospital (now Atlanta Medical Center) as Michael LeAnthony Willis. I believe my analysis of truth value (numbers represent truth value) came as a natural instinct since I was always considered a heavy thinker. The first recognition of my mathematical excellence came in the eighth grade when I was chosen to be a last-minute alternate for a Math Club competition at Sammye E. Coan Middle School.

I continued my matriculation at Frederick Douglass High School -- where as a star football player -- I maintained the top test grade for all in class tests in pre-calculus and calculus class my junior and senior years of high school. As a magnet student, but mostly because I was considered a jock, I received a lot of praise for this accomplishment. After receiving a full athletic scholarship to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), I decided, why not major in math since I had been so successful in pre-calculus and calculus in high school? Upon graduation from the University of Arkansas, I worked as an 8th grade math teacher at Nicholas Orem Middle School in Hyattsville, Maryland for the Prince George County School System. There I taught 8th grade math, 8th grade algebra and coached both the 8th grade girls' basketball and soccer team.

Being 24 years old at the time, with dreams of playing in the NFL, I quit my job as a teacher and became a full-time personal trainer. As a performance trainer, basically training middle school, high school and college level athletes, I discovered another stream of income for myself -- math tutoring specifically for this group of athletes. I worked as a personal trainer and math tutor for about almost eight years. After experiencing the ups and downs of the recession as an entrepreneur, I decided that math tutoring -- which was mostly a secondary form of income, needed to be my primary focus for it was my area of expertise and had lucrative possibilities. So, I hit the ground running. I developed flyers advertising my services and starting with Georgia State University, I walked on campuses, into the computer labs, math offices, student unions, tutoring offices etc.… and began asking questions. I wanted to know if there was a general location on campus where I could post my flyers.

After leaving GSU, I traveled to the Atlanta University Center (AUC) where I visited Clark Atlanta University, Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. Then I ventured out to Kennesaw State University and finally over to Atlanta Metropolitan College and Atlanta Technical College to round out my tour of colleges in the Atlanta area. Atlanta Technical College had a location where I could not only post my flyer, but more importantly, an opportunity where I could apply for a tutoring position if I wanted to, so I did.  I must have been super excited because the next day at 8 a.m., I returned to Atlanta Technical Collegeto fill out the official application for the tutoring position. After I completed the application, I conducted a second flyer run through the AUC, and luckily as some would say or divinely, as others might say, I walked into the Mathematics Department at Clark Atlanta University and found Dr. Charles Pierre, the Mathematics Department Chair, sitting in his office.

I introduced myself and told him I was a really good math tutor and if any of the students needed any additional help in math, I could tutor them. My assumption is that he was fascinated so he asked me some basic questions which lead me to hand him a copy of my official undergraduate transcript -- which as fate would have it -- I happened to have in my bag. After reviewing my transcript, he told me that we needed more Black men in the area of mathematics, and he would be willing to offer me a full scholarship to Clark Atlanta University if I enrolled in their graduate program. So, I did just that. I enrolled.

This all took place in August 2014. I started working as a tutor at Atlanta Technical College towards the end of October 2014 and started graduate school in January 2015. Leading into the Spring 2016 semester, I had accumulated enough graduate credit hours teach college courses at Atanta Technical College. It just so happened that there was a faculty emergency and there were, all of a sudden, five courses sections that had no instructor. Well, I happily informed my supervisor that I had enough graduate credit hours to teach college level courses at Atlanta Technical College. They confidently gave me three courses to teach that semester.

If that wasn't enough good news, Dr. Pierre the department chair at CAU, said he was personally teaching five to six courses and he wanted me and another classmate of mine to handle a couple of courses for him. I jumped on the opportunity and began as a student assistant teacher at CAU co-teaching an Algebra II course. I went on to earn my Master's of Science degree in Mathematics in three semesters by Spring 2016. I taught eight courses over two semesters working part-time for Clark Atlanta University and part-time at Atlanta Technical College. Going into the Fall of 2017, I started working full time at Gordon State College where I received two notable opportunities. First, I was hired as a GAP (Gordon Access Program) instructor, which meant my primary job was to teach at Fort Valley State University while filling in at Gordon State as needed. GAP was a program created by the University System of Georgia so students who did not qualify for Fort Valley State but wanted to attend the university could take advantage of a third option -- enroll at Gordon State (a two- year school or Access school) but live on the Fort Valley State campus.

As a Gordon State instructor, I traveled to Fort Valley State to teach the Access students their courses. After completing one year in our GAP program and passing all the required courses with a “C” or better, the students were automatically accepted at Fort Valley State. As an instructor there eager to see my students succeed, I introduced a new course called “Quantitative Skills and Reasoning.” It proved to be a great course for me to teach because I had both a strong mathematics background as well as a strong background in entrepreneurship.

I excelled at teaching Quantitative Skills and Reasoning and developed a real-world project to go along with the course. The Quantitative Skills and Reasoning course proved so successful that I was asked to also teach the course on Gordon State's campus along with the project. After two years at Gordon State, I was promoted from lecturer of mathematics to asistant professor and landed a position at Georgia Military College.

Courses Taught

Calculus
Applied Calculus
Business Calculus
Pre-Calculus
College Algebra
Contemporary Mathematics
Quantitative Reasoning and Skills
Foundations of Mathematics
Prerequisite Mathematic Courses
General Education Mathematics
Math Strategies
First Year Experience

Research Interests