Consisting of 70 teachers, students, and other interested parties, the members of the expedition planned to skin dive along the coast of Spain and Morocco, seeking evidence of the lost island.
She was the director of the Ancient Mediterranean Research Association, an organization she co-founded with Julian Nava, and she wrote or co-wrote several books on Atlantis.
[7] Asher is the founder of American World University, a postsecondary distance learning institution which is commonly considered to be a diploma mill.
[4] Tuition costs vary by country, and international students are attracted through local representatives, who handle regional advertising and in return receive half of the money they generated as a finder's fee.
[8] It was later based in Pascagoula, Mississippi,[9] with some operations such as the grading of papers also taking place at Asher's home[8] in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
The school also had a branch in Brazil, where Brazilian government officials estimate that it generated revenues in excess of four million dollars over its first two years in that country.
For example, Dr. Adrian Waller (part-time tutor, Nihon University) wrote, "It is little wonder ... that I should speak so highly of AWU—and of Dr. Asher—for integrity, a commitment to the highest standards of post-secondary education, and to unswerving plans to remain a leader in distance learning by continuing to upgrade the concept in the years to come.
[8] University of California, Berkeley professor John Bear, an expert on diploma mills, has described AWU as a "mail drop".
[13] Asher defended the academic rigor of AWU's curriculum, stating, "We're not Harvard, we're not Princeton, but I think we do a very credible job educating people.