Dr. Darlene V. Willis
Dr. Darlene V. Willis is the President and CEO of Empowering Parents and the Co-Founder of Concerned Parents Alliance and its educational components titled College Bound San Diego and College Bound Oceanside. She has served as an administrator at nationally recognized public and private institutions for more than twenty years. Her comprehensive experience also encompasses vocational and career guidance for the private sector as well as an array of school districts giving her a remarkable knowledge base.
This first generation college graduate and former PTA President has a successful record of accomplishment traveling around the country offering educational workshops, seminars and keynote addresses to empower countless parents/families, students, educators, employees, employers and community leaders. She is the Co-Founder of the Empowering Parents on Tour: The Million Parent WAKE-UP Challenge!℠
With extraordinary style, this woman of faith influences her audiences, large and small, capitalizing on “her personal and professional experience,” research, music, poetry and interactive participation to spread the message that we’re in a national educational crisis yet parents have the power to change these results.
Dr. Willis served as the keynote speaker for the AVID International Summer Institute where she empowered over 4,200 educators throughout the world to take actions in their classrooms to help decrease the educational achievement gap.
She was listed in the November 2010 Essence magazine with her business partner as their “Top 10 Women Warriors We’re Talking About” list and quoted as an Educational expert in their September 2012 publication. Dr. Willis was honored at the NY Public Library as one of ten women selected throughout the nation to receive the Maybelline New York Empowerment through Education Award. She is also the recipient of the YMCA Twin Awards, Channel 10 Leadership Award, Educator of the Year, Woman of the Year, KSWB Unsung Hero Award and the Concerned Parents Alliance Hall of Education Award. She is the 1st Vice President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated’s San Diego graduate chapter and the Co-Chair of the San Diego Region for the California Alliance of African American Educators.
Dr. Willis is also the Co-Author of the book Empowering Parents: A Guide to Taking Back Control of Your Child’s Educational Journey. She is also the author of an interactive curriculum which is utilized to empower parents and employers in the workplace, schools, school districts, universities/colleges, prisons, churches and non-profit organizations. In addition, Dr. Willis and her husband served as the Inaugural Co-Chairs of the Morehouse College Parent Council until their son graduated in 2012.
Dr. Willis holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of California at Irvine; a Master of Arts and a Ph.D in Organizational Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology. She is an alumna of Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education program.
Dr. Willis resides in San Diego, CA with her husband of 25 years. They have two sons, Phillip and James. Phillip attends Ashford University and James is in his first year at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
Additional information on Dr. Willis can be found by visiting www.empoweringparents.org or www.collegeboundsd.com or you can follow her on twitter @ParentsWAKEUP or on Facebook under Empowering Parents.