Michael K. Willis was born and raised in the Appalachian region of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. Willis received his bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Western Carolina University and his master’s degree in public administration from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
Michael K. Willis
Michael K. Willis never imagined becoming a whistleblower when he accepted a position as the assistant administrator at Bradley Memorial Hospital. His memoir details the real-life events that led him to file a lawsuit against his boss under the Tennessee Whistleblower Act. This news rocked the small southern town located in the Appalachian Mountains’ western foothills, as the hospital was a renowned institution. Hospital Administrator Jim Whitlock was under indictment, and Willis’s ethical standards would not let him look the other way. He would not be blamed or become the scapegoat. Instead, he would act to save his job and ensure the truth prevailed.
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Michael “Mikey” K. Willis can split his life into two periods: before and after 1962.Before 1962, Mikey’s life consists of running wild and hiding from his parents in rural Macon County, North Carolina. His father, the pastor of the local Baptist church, is physically abusive. His mother is just as bad. It is only Mikey’s determination and his sense of humor that get him through these harsh days of childhood. Then, in 1962, his father is offered a position at a church in Asheville, North Carolina, and the entire family is uprooted. To young Mikey, who has never known anything but rural Appalachia, Asheville is a world of endless possibilities. In this bittersweet coming-of-age story, Willis chronicles his adolescence in Asheville and his surprising homecoming in Macon County, after friendship, first loves, and important revelations have led him down a path far different, and far removed, from his father’s.
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