KA-BOOM!!! School Board Member has an Explosion

These stories never get old for me.

Mimms obtained doctorate degree from alleged Paterson diploma mill | Paterson Times

 

There is a local school board member in my town with a doctorate from Kennedy Western University. She used to be a teacher and administrator in the school before retiring and becoming a school board member. I had known she earned a doctorate online but never asked questions and just assumed it was legit.

But then one day in our local paper, there was a brief mention of Dr. So-and-so who earned her doctorate from Kennedy Western. By that time I was working on my own doctorate and had some research and reading about accredited and unaccredited universities so I instantly recognized KW and knew it was not accredited. I figured nobody would pick up on this in our town and I would not have either if I was not working on my own doctorate at Northcentral which was and is regionally accredited. I have actually informed a few people about this and I think the news may have gotten to some that she would have rathered not question her credentials. I have never seen or heard anything publically mentioned, but it seems most news articles do not put Dr. in front of her name any more. I wish the lady no harm as my children liked her in school and the way KW marketed, I'm not sure she did this with fraudulent intent, though I'm sure she knew it was unaccredited (they just made that seem like not a bad thing at the time in their marketing; it seemed the marketing claim was more about saving money than taking a short cut through the work required for a doctorate, even though if she had experienced earning an accredited doctorate she would likely have seen the extreme difference in requirements). My only real question is whether she received higher pay while still working in the school, as a result of her credential. If she did, that was WRONG.

 

Although Kennedy-Western generally was responsible about not falsely claiming to be accredited, at one time, at least, they claimed accreditation from an unrecognized (and, as I recall, unfindable) agency.