Wendy Rouse has had a love of martial arts and self-defense since she was ten years old when she first began studying karate. She earned the rank of Shodan in Shotokan Karate and later went on to study Uechi-Ryu Karate, earning a Yondan and Shihan certification. She has taught courses in karate for students at the high school and at the university level and teaches self-defense courses in the community. Rouse is also a professor at San Jose State University where she teaches courses in history and teacher preparation. Her academic research focuses on LGBTQ+ history and the history of women and children in the United States during the Progressive Era. Her book, Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement (NYU Press), examines the political and physical empowerment of women through the practice of boxing and jiu-jitsu in the early twentieth century.