[4] After graduating from college, Willens got her first job at a suburban Detroit tabloid, Spinal Column.
[5] There were just two other female photographers working for newspapers in Florida that she knew of,[1] Mary Lou Foy at the Miami Herald and Ursula Seemann at the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel.
So she photographed a woman in a bikini, had the image blown up to poster size, tacked it to the wall of her office, and told everyone that it was the last such picture she would take.
[1] Willens also photographed Queen Elizabeth II's state visit to the Bahamas in October,[4][5] and world heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali training at the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach in December.
)[5] Willens extensively covered the Mariel boatlift,[4] when 1,700 private boats brought nearly 125,000 Cubans to the United States between April and October 1980.
"I couldn't leave the office to photograph, the phone was ringing all night long and I answered it," she said.
[5] She studied the work of fellow Miami AP photojournalist Phillip K. Sandlin to learn what constituted a good shot and how to edit images.
She received the Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Reportorial Excellence, and was honored several times by both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and Pro Football Hall of Fame in their yearly photo competitions.
[4] When she retired, the New York Press Photographers Association gave her the Louis Liotta Lifetime Achievement Award.
[8] Stories and events that were big and ongoing were the most attractive things for Willens to document with her photography.
[4] She also worked for eight months on a series of images of mothers serving prison sentences in New York state.
[4] In 2021, she began a documentary photography project about students at a high school for educationally disadvantaged childre, but never completed it.
[5] However, she earned a reputation among photojournalists and news editors for consistently coming up with a defining image of the people and events she covered.
The New York Yankees professional baseball team honored her during a pregame ceremony in which manager Aaron Boone presented her with a framed print signed by pitcher David Cone.