Shirley Willis

Shirley Willis was born in Farmington, New Mexico decades before it was fashionable to call it the Four Corners area. For the next fifteen years, her family of confirmed nomads traversed the country from New Mexico to North Carolina, to South Carolina, to Maine to Texas, to Massachusetts, to...well, you get the picture. Starting at 15 years old and for the next forty-five years, Shirley lived in rural and coastal Maine, eventually moving right "into" the ocean on Peaks Island.

In 2007, her husband convinced her that the Great Southwest, and in particular Arizona, was more than scorpions, rattlesnakes and sun-cracked earth. And, furthermore, that it was ideal for their retirement. But not immediately. First, they needed to finish their careers.

Naked Teaching: A Love Story was Born.

For 34 years, Shirley Willis taught, consulted and administered programs for students with special needs in every disability category, kindergarten through twelfth grade, in Wisconsin, Maine and Arizona. After completing 61,753 pages of reports and forms, she retired to let out the stories whispering at the edge of her keyboard. She lives with her best-buddy husband, Richard, smack in the middle of Arizona’s spectacular vistas.

Shirley holds an MS in administration and special education, all categories K-12, and a BS in elementary education and learning disabilities. Colleagues have often compared her to a bull terrier when kids are marginalized with labels. She thinks she’s vigorously persistent and amiable. Richard declares she’s both.