Free College Benefit and Washington National

Corrections Officer Daniel Coyne
Director

The PPA is proud to announce its partnership with Washington National. Washington National is an insurance company that offers life and supplemental insurance products to include cancer, stroke, accident and critical illness that has a unique return-of-premium feature. 

Last month, I met with Alex Hunt and Chelsea Austin from Washington National. Alex and Chelsea both expressed to me that they were very pro-police and would love to do more than just sell our members’ insurance. They came to me with a folder of benefits and contacts that they would like to share with the members of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association as a benefit of their proposed partnership. One of the benefits they had was a “free college” benefit. This benefit got my attention right away as I know how valuable it would be to our members. Alex and Chelsea then informed me that this was not actually free, but was part of a more expensive benefits package that was quite frankly out of our price range. Seeing how disappointed I was, Alex and Chelsea got creative and went directly to the two accredited colleges and arranged for the cost to be covered completely for our membership. I was beyond happy with this offer from them and brought the proposal to the rest of the Executive Board, who quickly approved the partnership.

Alex and Chelsea will be here at the PPA office on March 24 to meet with our membership to discuss their great products and to further explain the free college program. I want to clarify that this college benefit will be available for all PPA members, active and retired. The program will be available at no cost to our members and their families, which include spouses, children, financial dependents and grandchildren. These programs are all online, and you will have many associate degrees and several bachelor’s degree options to choose from. If you choose to get a degree in criminal justice, Eastern Gateway Community College will give you up 33 credits for your police academy and up to 18 credits for your corrections academy after you send them your training records. Our goal is to launch this program in March, and we are on schedule for this timeline. If you have any questions about this program or Washington National’s products, please come up to the office on March 24 to meet Alex and Chelsea in person. 

“Hi! I’m Chelsea Austin, a Las Vegas local and the Nevada state manager for PMA USA, representing Washington National. I’m looking forward to helping all LVPPA members get educated on their new benefit option and learn about how our partnership allows your whole family to get a free college degree.”
“Hello! I’m Alex Hunt, and I am a union case manager for PMA USA, representing Washington National. I help our vice president of union services, Julie Craig, provide valuable education, benefits and tech platforms to unions looking to partner with us across the nation.”