Shifu/Sensei Kore Grate

Koré Grate (Shifu/Sensei)

Head Instructor/Executive Director of Five Element Martial Arts & Healing Center
www.femamartialarts.org
3743 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407 (612) 729-7233 (FEMA)
shifukg@femamartialarts.org
4252 Colfax Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55409 (612) 306-7788 (cell)

Eighth Degree Black Belt in WU CHIEN PAI (founded in 1973 by Dr. Alexander Feng)
- Traditional Judo, Jujitsu, Gong-fu, Taiji, Qigong, Healing & /Meditation

Two Second Degree Black Belts in Nishio Ryu Iaido and Sosho Ryu Iaido
(Traditional Japanese Sword)

Executive Director of the Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors
Branch Manager for Jian Mei Internal Arts - Grandmaster Wen Mei Yu
Midwest Manager for Master Su Zifang
NWMAF Certified Self Defense Instructor
Keiko Fukuda Judo Foundation Board of Directors
LIFETIME member and supporter of AWMAI, PAWMA NWMAF
2020/2021-President of the Braemar Women’s Golf Club

Founder & Executive Director and Head Instructor of the Five Element Martial Arts and Healing Center (FEMA) formerly Feminist Eclectic Martial Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota founded in 1989 then established in 1994 as a 501c3 non-profit organization. The first Branch of FEMA is in Jerusalem, Israel under Shijie Sarah Gordon-Lavine.
Shifu/Sensei Koré has been training in the martial arts since she was 16. She was inducted into the AWMAI Hall of Fame in 2012 for 40 years of teaching and training. She has been serving as the Executive Director of the Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors from 2013 to present.

Supporting what she believes in, she is a founding board member of PAWMA, served as PAWMA Vice-President, created and served as a PAWMA Elder Counsel, she received the PAWMA Martial Artist of the Year in 2005 and the esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
in 1994-1996, Koré served as Chair for NWMAF (National Women’s Martial Arts Federation) and is one of the founding mothers of the ARC Council (Anti-Racism Council/All Races Count).

She is on the Keiko Fukuda Foundation Board of Directors as a link to AWMAI, NWMAF and PAWMA.
In November 2016 she traveled to India with Sifu Sonya Richardson and Dr. Shelley Fernandez representing the Keiko Fukuda Judo Foundation to teach girls “much needed” self-defense in twelve schools in Patiala in the Northern Punjab Province.

With deep gratitude for her teachers whom she still trains with, Koré is a branch of Zhi Dao Guan - Grandmaster Alex Feng, Midwest Manager for Master Su Zi Fang, and Branch Manager of Jian Mei -Grandmaster Wen Mei Yu. She trained in Naginata with the late Miyako Tanaka Sensei, and trains in Nishio Ruy Aikitoho Iaido under Koji Yoshida Shihan and Michelle Benzamin-Miki Sensei. To further deepen her roots in the arts, she traveled to China three times and trained with Professor Wang Pei Kun and his International Wu Shu Team. The late great Professor Coleen Gragen of Hand to Hand Kajukenbo in Oakland will always be one of her heroes and inspiration to "Stay True to the Path-Never let anyone or anything stop you from training” and ultimately “It’s all about LOVE”.

Her Motto: “Look at it, Learn from it, Let it go”