As a member-driven organization, we need you. Your leadership and voice are important!
Apply yourself or nominate someone today!
Leaders of NWMAF are everyday martial artists and self-defense and healing arts practitioners, just like the majority of the organization’s members. Get to know them, and consider becoming a leader yourself.
- Board positions run in staggered two-year terms.
- Meet and collaborate with your peers.
- Gain organizational skills at the national and even international level.
- Learn to think and plan nationally and globally.
- Provide a service not found anywhere else in the world.
- Descriptions of all positions can be found in the NWMAF Bylaws.
Open positions:
Events Coordinator
Events Coordinator (EC): The EC accepts, reviews, and prepares proposals for NWMAF-endorsed events for action by the Board. The EC manages the logistics, administrative needs, and production of the annual conference with necessary support as coordinated by the Chair and other members of the Board. The EC will work with the Martial Arts Coordinator, Healing Arts Coordinator, and Self-Defense Coordinator to coordinate and vet classes for the annual conferences, and create and maintain all event safety policies needed.
Digital Coordinator
Digital (DigC): The DigC is in charge of our web presence, including updating and maintaining the organization’s website content and website back-end. The DigC works with other board members to accomplish online organizational business. Experience with WordPress is ideal. Basic HTML and CSS skills are a huge plus.
Current Board Members
Connie Halporn, Chair
Serving 2024 – 2026
Email: chair@nwmaf.org
Connie Halporn has been a coach/sensei and mentor in Judo since the 1970s. She is currently an assistant coach at the New York University Judo Club and Brooklyn Martial Arts, with the rank of 6th degree black belt in Judo. Connie is firmly committed to working together to build a better and more inclusive NWMAF.
Monica Villanueva, Vice-chair
Serving 2025 – 2027
Email: vicechair@nwmaf.org
Monica Villanueva started and taught at the Kodenkan Academy of Martial Arts in Thornton, Illinois, as a headinstructor to promote Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. Her martial arts journey began in 1983 with Tae Kwon Do. Shestarted studying Danzan Ryu Jujitsu in 1989 with the intent to develop a well-rounded martial arts background.
A nationally certified Yodan (4th Degree Black Belt) and Senior Instructor with the American Judo and Jujitsu Federation (AJJF), she also holds a Sankyu (3rd Degree Brown Belt) in Judo. Her credentials include 1st Degree Black Belts in Tae Kwon Do and Hakka Ryu Jujitsu, as well as certification in the Okazaki Restorative Arts. Additionally, she is a certified First Responder. She is also well-versed in boxing and kickboxing. Villanueva has extensive experience teaching community workshops and classes including children’s personal safety, women’s self-defense, and first responder restraint tactics. She has hosted numerous AJJF events, including a National Danzan Ryu Jujitsu Convention in Chicago, Midwest regional clinics, and local community programs. She also served as a Judo athlete guide for the USA Paralympic team at the Kodokan in Tokyo.
Tasca Shadix, Secretary
Serving 2024 – 2026
Email: secretary@nwmaf.org.
- Home: Austin, TX
- Personal pronouns: she/her/hers
Tasca Shadix began training at Sun Dragon Martial Arts in Austin, Texas in 1996 and earned her black belt under Sensei Suzanne Pinette. During her years at the school, she attended several NWMAF conferences and taught many self-defense workshops in the Austin area, before moving to Scotland with her family for a decade. As a mother of two daughters and teacher with a passion for helping people find their voices and access their own strength, Tasca is delighted to be back in the ESD world, working towards earning NWMAF certification, and serving as Board Secretary.
Corinne Lagermasini, Treasurer
Serving 2025- 2027
Email: treasurer@nwmaf.org.
Corinne Lagermasini is an Empowerment Self-Defense Instructor based in Philadelphia, PA. She originally studied ESD and Tae Kwon Do with Sensei Carol Middleton in Washington, DC. For the past 20 years, she has taught ESD with WAVE Self Defense in Philly. Corinne’s professional background is in public health and nonprofit management and leadership.
Diane Wallander, Development Coordinator
Serving 2024 – 2026
Email: fundraiser@nwmaf.org.
Diane Wallander’s passion for martial arts and self-defense began at college, where she trained in and taught Jujutsu and women’s self-defense classes. Over her 40+ year martial arts career, Diane has taught thousands of men and women to defend themselves. She holds the ranks of 8th dan in Miyama Ryu Jujutsu, 3 rd dan in Traditional Korean Hapkido and 2nd dan in WTF Taekwondo.
Diane is the founder and owner of Chicago Minami Dojo, slated to open summer 2024. She holds a B.A. in Biology, and both an M.A. & Ph.D. in Anthropology from Northwestern University, where she studied primate aggressive behavior. The unique combination of her expertise in practical and effective self-defense skills, paired with a deep understanding of behavioral signals, allows Diane to teach her students self-defense rooted in reality-based scenarios of assault.
Diane has two sons, Steven and Wyatt, with her husband, Rohin Ullberg, and spends as much time as she can with her three beloved cats, Zen, Gizmo and Ruby Mae, and her Shiba Inu, Sakura.
Beth Deal, Membership Coordinator
Serving 2024 – 2026
Email: members@nwmaf.org.
Emily McKee, Martial Arts Coordinator
Serving 2023-2025
Email: martialarts@nwmaf.org.
- Home town: Qathet, B.C., Canada
- Pronouns: she/her
Emily McKee began studying wing chun kung-fu in 2007 while living in Taipei, Taiwan. She trained with Master Lo Man Kam and Thierry Cuvillier in the Lo Man Kam Lineage for 11 years, before becoming a certified instructor in 2018. Since then, she has taught wing chun kung-fu and Empowerment Self-Defense at the Thierry Cuvillier Wing Chun Academy in Taiwan and in Canada, and now runs a school in qathet, British Columbia.
Emily became an NWMAF member in 2019 and joined her first annual conference virtually in 2020. She received her NWMAF ESD certification in 2021 and taught beginners wing chun and meditation classes at the 2021 Rise Conference in Buffalo.
Emily is a longtime vipassana meditator and in her spare time she enjoys swimming, hiking, and hitting her wooden dummy.
Clara Porter, Self Defense Coordinator
Serving 2024 – 2026
Email: selfdefense@nwmaf.org
- Home Town: Portland, Maine USA
- Pronouns: She/Her
Clara is the founder of Prevention. Action. Change. a violence prevention, intervention, response, and healing program based in Portland, Maine which works to counter harassment, assault, and abuse through awareness, verbal and physical skills, and the promotion of healing and growth. Clara has been a certified Empowerment Self Defense instructor with NWMAF since 2001 and has advanced training in Trauma First Aide.
Through Prevention. Action. Change., Clara trains and mentors ESD teachers and focuses on bringing ESD, Active Bystander Intervention, De-escalation, Sexual Harassment prevention and response, and Workplace Safety training to the communities most targeted for violence. Her primary focus personally is on ESD as a tool for trauma healing using a unique program called Healing Through Empowerment.
In 2020, Clara resumed her study of GoJu Karate with Brooklyn GoJU, formerly Brooklyn Women’s Martial Arts, after a 20 year hiatus thanks to online classes.
When not teaching, Clara can be found working on community activism or walking in the woods or on the beach with her dog enjoying the incredible landscape of Maine.
Ashlyn Johnson, Healing Arts
Serving 2025 – 2027
Email: healingarts@nwmaf.org
Ashlyn Johnson is a nurse practitioner, assistant professor of nursing, and lifelong martial artist committed to the intersection of healing and empowerment through martial arts. With over 15 years of clinical experience, she is dual board-certified in family and psychiatric-mental health practice, providing care to many individuals navigating trauma, PTSD, and resilience-building. Ashlyn’s professional and academic work centers on trauma-informed care, mental wellness, and the therapeutic potential of martial arts and self-defense training.
With more than 25 years of experience training in diverse martial arts systems, her current focus is on Kali and Silat. Ashlyn believes in the transformative power of martial arts and self-defense training as a pathway to reclaiming agency, especially for trauma survivors. She is deeply grateful to her teachers, including Guro Jeremiah Lovejoy, and is honored to be an instructor under the legendary Guro Dan Inosanto.
Emma Thornton, Youth Coordinator
Serving 2026-2028
Email: youth@nwmaf.org
Emma Thornton is a Biology student at the University of Texas at Austin, and she has practiced Seido Karate with Sun Dragon for 12 years. She loves assisting in classes, summer camp, and in the Sun Dragon ESD Violence Prevention Program. Emma enjoys practicing martial arts due its elements of mindfulness, constant growth, and community. In her free time, Emma enjoys hiking, painting, and reading.
Shay Mooster, Equity & Inclusion Coordinator
Serving 2024-2026
Email: nwmaf_equity@nwmaf.org
Shay has been practicing Taekwondo for over 30 years and Tai Chi for more than a decade. She was certified in Self-Defense from the Inside Out by Nadia Telsey in 2000 and in 2023, she was certified in Empowerment Self-Defense by the NWMAF.
Dance has also been a meaningful part of her journey. Moving to music invites people to lead from inside the body. Dance is an expression of who you are in any given moment—fluid or clumsy, honest or performative—but always rooted in the Self.
Professionally, she works in health equity for a non-profit. Their mission is to expand access to healthcare for historically underserved communities. This work is deeply personal because she has dynamic (invisible) disabilities. Her experience of harm within the medical system is the reason she is committed to advocating for justice and equity in healthcare. In health, martial arts, and life, she believes in discovering and centering the Self. ESD is not just a practice, but a life philosophy: the more people understand and value themselves, the more effectively they can move through the world. Everyone brings something unique and beautiful to the world. We all have our own style.