Staff
Our Staff is a tight-knit group of highly motivated individuals who are dedicated to teaching and leading others down the same path they have chosen. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a group of individuals from a wide array of backgrounds with a strong sense of unity, family values, respect and courtesy, goal-setting skills, and the character it takes to develop a positive winning attitude within each student.
Our Staff is “Home Grown.” In other words, each and every staff member first started in the Academy as a student. After reaching strict minimum standard requirements, a student may apply for membership to our Staff program.
All of our Staff Members are Certified by the Kokoro Kai and are required to complete a minimum of two years in our Assistant Instructor & Leadership Team Program before being elevated to Instructor status. Staff members also receive special training and responsibilities that prove to aide each individual Staff Member in his or her own personal growth and development. They aren’t just teaching….they are also continuing their education in the martial arts.
Kevin Cunningham
6th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Black Belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Kevin has been training in the Academy for over 30 years and has 25 years experience as an Instructor. His wife, Josa also trains and teaches in the Academy and they have two daughters. He currently works as a software engineer in Philadelphia.
Kevin Ferguson
7th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Kevin is Mr. Exaros’ longest-training student with 39 years in the martial arts. He is a senior instructor of the Academy and has been teaching for almost three decades! He is married with a young daughter and currently works as a computer programmer and software developer.
Neil Zieselman
7th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Neil Zieselman has been studying martial arts for over 45 years and he began as a young child in the original school run by Mr. D Jenkins. He is one of our Senior Instructors. Neil lives in NJ, works for a major finance company, is married with four children, and travels in to PA to teach black belt classes, seminars and various special events.
Steve Parys
6th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Brown Belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Steve is a Senior Instructor in the Dojo with over 30 years experience as a martial artist and 25 years as a Staff Instructor He is married with two children who are currently training in our Dojo and is an Accountant for a local company in Lansdale.
Paul Schmidt
6th Degree Black Belt in Isshinryu
Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Paul has well over 30 years experience as a Martial Artist and has been teaching for over 20 years. Paul is a head instructor at the Springfield Rec Center Martial Arts Program along with his daughter, Amanda. Paul is an environmental attorney with a firm in Springfield.
Brad Umfer
6th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Brad has been training in the Academy for over 32 years and has 25 years experience as an Instructor. He lives in NJ, but travels often to train and to cover classes when another instructor needs to be absent. He is also one of our tech support specialists for this website. He is married with two young daughters, both of which now train in the Academy.
Dallas Strachan
5th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Purple Belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Dallas is one of the first students to enroll in the Academy when we opened in 1991. With 34 years as a Martial Artist and over 20 years as an Instructor, he teaches students of all ages in the Academy and is currently focusing on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He works in the heating and plumbing field.
Diane Pilch
4th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Diane came to us 22 years ago with a background in Tae Kwon Do. She has been teaching for over 13 years and currently instructs on Thursday nights at the Horsham Dojo. She is a pediatric physical therapist working with disabled preschoolers in Bucks County, and is married with two grown children.
Eric Enger
4th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Eric has been training for over 22 years in the Academy. He is a graduate of PSU and has done a lot of work with childhood education and development. Having over 15 years experience as an instructor, he brings a lot of energy to his classes with his passion for teaching. He is currently a teacher at a middle school in the district. You can also often find him attending and assisting in various classes throughout the week.
Shannon Lynott
4th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Shannon especially likes working with younger kids. She has over 25 years in the Martial Arts and 13 years as an Instructor. She was a Goddard School instructor for several years and is a graduate of PSU.
Metani Exaros
4th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Purple Belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Metani is the daughter of the Head Instructor and has been training in the arts for over 20 years She has been on staff since she was a young teen and has a wealth of instructing knowledge having trained with her dad in classes all of her life. She is the instructor for the Doylestown Rec Center program. She owns her own photography and videography company, teaches horseback riding in Souderton, and is also a competitive horseback riding enthusiast.
Ryan Winkworth
4th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Ryan Winkworth is a 4th Degree Black Belt and has been training in karate for almost 20 years. He is also a Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is a graduate from Southern New Hampshire with a degree in Business Administration. He currently teaches karate on Wednesday nights.
Greg Lostaunau
4th Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Greg started training at age ten in Karate and recently he has begun training in Brazilian Jiu-JItsu. He is a graduate of PSU with a degree in Chemical Engineering and is currently working for a Pharmaceutical company and pursuing a Masters Degree. Greg is a member of the Competition Team and teaches on Wednesday nights.
Kevin Jenson
3rd Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Blue Belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Kevin Jensen has been training in the Martial Arts for 15 years and teaching for over 9 years. He is a CPA and works for a firm out of Doylestown and Lansdale.
Alan Exaros
3rd Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Alan is the son of the head instructor and has been training in the arts for over 18 years since he was just four years old. He has also studied BJJ and is currently attending Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus for aeronautical engineering. Alan returns from the University often to teach and staff special events like our annual training camp.
Amanda Schmidt
3rd Degree Black Belt in Isshninryu Karate
Amanda has been training all her life and teaching for the past 10 years. She is a head instructor at the Springfield Rec Center Martial Arts Program, along with her father, Paul. She is a graduate of Drexel University
Josa Hanzlik
2nd Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Purple Belt Brazilian Jiu-JItsu
Josa has over nine years in the Martial Arts and has been teaching for the past four years. She and her husband, Kevin Cunningham, co-instruct on Thursday evenings and they have two daughters, one of which currently trains in our Dojo. Josa works as a Toxicologist for a blood/plasma supplier and services company.
Russel Graef
2nd Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Russel has been training in the Academy for 9 years and has been teaching for the past 5. He has been teaching high school science since 2004. Russel has a B.S. in microbiology from Northwestern State University, and an M.S. in biotechnology from Stephen F. Austin. He is currently a Physics teacher in the School District of Philadelphia.
Richard Wren
Brown Belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Brown Belt Judo
Richard has decades of a competitive background in both Olympic Weight Lifting and Judo as a Brown Belt. He has been teaching Jiu-Jitsu for the past 2 years in our Academy. Rich is a graduate of Temple University (Tyler School Of Art) and is a world renowned tattoo artist. He owns and operates the Relic Tattoo Studio in Horsham. Rich and his partner, Gabbie have a young daughter.
Joey Farzetta
2nd Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Blue Belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Joey has been training in karate since he was just seven years old. He currently holds the rank of 2nd Degree Black Belt in Karate and a Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-JItsu. He has wrestling experience and brings that to the Kids Jiu-JItsu classes he teaches on Fridays. He also teaches karate throughout the week in various classes. He is part of our Competition Team and often competes in both karate
and Jiu-Jitsu.
Caitlin Doll-Young
2nd Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Caitlin has been training in karate since she was seven years old and holds the rank of 2nd Degree Black Belt in Karate. She teaches a dynamic kids karate class on Thursdays.
Alexis Doll-Young
2nd Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Alexis is a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Karate and teaches a fantastic class on Tuesdays. She has been training since she was just seven years old and competes often in tournaments
Nate Martinez
1st Degree Black Belt Isshinryu Karate
Nate is a 1st Degree Black Belt in Karate and is a highly competitive as a wrestler in school. He's been training in the martial arts in both Karate and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since he was just six years old and also has a background in ballet. He brings all of his experience together to teach the Tuesday night Kids Jiu-Jitsu class and is also active in teaching karate throughout the week. He is part of our Competition Team and often competes in both Karate and Jiu-Jitsu.
Anthony Vega
Anthony began his martial arts training at the age of 5, earning a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo. After a 24 year hiatus, he joined our Academy with his young son, which rekindled his love and passion for martial arts and the traditions, self-value, and community that come with it. Anthony is a visual artist and a college professor. He is currently Assistant Professor of Art at Reading Area Community College, and has a Master of Fine Art degree from University of Delaware and a BA from St. Joseph’s University. He currently teaches at our Springfield Rec location.
Arthur Walters
Arthur began his martial arts training at the age of 10, earning a black belt in kickboxing in the 1980s. In subsequent years, he trained in multiple traditional martial arts and finally landed in our Springfield Academy with his son and daughter. Since then, he has been a solid member of the school and a positive influence on the student body. He currently works as a Cyber Security Engineer Team Lead for the FDA. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, a Master’s in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology & Program Management from the Naval Post Graduate School. He currently teaches Karate at our Springfield Rec location and is soon to be tested for Black Belt in Isshinryu Karate.