As a member-driven organization, we need you.
Your leadership and voice are important!
Apply 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:
Vice Chair
Vice-Chair: Shares in Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, and Development Coordinator duties in their stead, heads the coordination of the Advisory Committee, and serves on the Executive Committee. The Vice-Chair is also responsible for assisting the Chair in creating Board Meeting agendas and is responsible for presiding over the meeting.
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
For general questions about the NWMAF and inquiries about open positions, contact 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.
Tasca Shadix, Secretary
Serving 2024 – 2026
To submit newsletter articles or contributions to the NWMAF archives, please send an email to 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.
Cheryl VanHoosen, Treasurer
- Home: Roanoke, VA
- Personal pronouns: she/her/hers
Cheryl has been practicing (and practicing and practicing) both hard and soft arts for the past 23 years. She has been attending NWMAF conferences for more than 20 years and always comes away energized. She enjoys the journey of training and who she is on the mat.
While not training, Cheryl enjoys hiking in the Blue Ridge with her hound dog, Coal, and her spouse.
Beth Deal, Membership Coordinator
Serving 2023 – 2025
For questions about your membership, regional activities, and opportunities to serve on committees, send an email to members@nwmaf.org.
Coming soon!
Diane Wallander, Development Coordinator
Serving 2024 – 2026
If you have questions about fundraising or development, contact the events coordinator at 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.
Emily McKee, Martial Arts Coordinator
Serving 2023-2025
For questions related to NWMAF’s martial arts branch, send an email to martialarts@nwmaf.org.
- Home town: Qathet, B.C., Canada
- Pronouns: she/her
Emily McKee began studying wing chun kung-fu in 2007 while working in Taipei, Taiwan. She trained with her master, Thierry Cuvillier, full time for 11 years until she became a certified instructor in 2018. Since then, she has taught wing chun kung-fu and Empowerment Self-Defence at the Thierry Cuvillier Wing Chun Academy in Taiwan and in Canada, and is currently teaching in Qathet, BC upon moving back to Canada in 2021. 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 mediation classes at the 2021 Rise Conference in Buffalo.
Emily is a longtime vipassana meditator having completed five 10-day courses, and in her spare time she enjoys swimming, hiking, and hitting her wooden dummy.
Clara Porter, Self Defense Coordinator
Serving 2022-2024
For questions about the self defense program at NWMAF 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.
Tamara Machac, Youth Coordinator
Serving 2023-2025
Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions regarding improving the NWMAF’s youth program? Would you like to get more involved? Whether you’re a student, parent/guardian, or instructor, the NWMAF would love to hear from you. If you’re under the age of 18 years old, please write an email (with your parent/guardian or instructor) and send it from their email address to youth@nwmaf.org.
(She/Her) Tamara holds the position of 2nd-degree black belt instructor from Body Mind Studios – a martial arts school that has a multi-style curriculum that includes kong su do (“hard” style), kong fu, bagwa, aikido/hapkido, udo, tai chi, traditional weapons, and Samurai sword. The focus of this school’s unique curriculum is to develop not only physical strength and mind-body connection but also to use training as a means to cultivate empathy and mindfulness in one’s daily life. Tamara has been training for over 20 years and has taught martial arts for over 15 years. She is dedicated to continuing her training and sharing her art with others. Tamara also teaches martial arts and tai chi workshops at the high school where she works as a science teacher.
Shay Mooster, Equity & Inclusion Coordinator
Serving 2024-2026
For questions regarding NWMAF’s equity and inclusion work, send an email to nwmaf_equity@nwmaf.org.