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The professional violence prevention staff at Thousand Waves is made up of six women and men who had undergone an intensive teacher training program, plus three lead instructors who are nationally certified.
Our team includes professional teachers and individuals with extensive teaching experience with adults and teens.
Nancy Lanoue
Executive Director and Head Instructor
Marie O'Brien
Director of Violence Prevention Programs
Kate Webster
Associate Director of Violence Prevention
Triston Alvarez
Susan Barney
Jeff Edwards
Michal Eskayo
Peggy Shinner
Executive Director and Head Instructor:
Nancy Lanoue has been training in martial arts and self-defense since 1977. Her primary martial arts are Seido Karate and Kajukenbo, in which she holds the ranks of 6th degree and 2nd degree black belt.
As a student and later a teacher at the Women's Martial Arts Center in New York, she developed a political analysis of violence, and began to see how martial arts and self-defense training could empower women to fight back against the everyday violence in their lives. In these early years, she also trained at the Civilian Defense Training Center, a co-ed program. In 1979, she co-founded a violence-prevention organization called SAFE that offered innovative, low commitment/high impact self-defense and empowerment workshops from their Center in Greenwich Village and also on an outreach basis to schools, community groups, and businesses.
Her years of teaching empowerment based self-defense to women, men, teens, and children have led to a commitment to explore the many root causes of violence and the inter-connections between individual, societal, and global issues. She has developed a framework for teaching that both encourages students to assert their rights to safety and respect and also to explore their potential to speak and act violently. The objective is not only to have students be able to keep themselves safe, but also to develop the courage and commitment to take a stand against, intervene in, and interrupt violence.
Since 1985, Nancy has co-directed the martial arts, fitness, and violence prevention trainings
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offered at Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self Defense Center in Chicago with Co-Executive Director Sarah Ludden. More than 350 women, men, teens, and children currently participate in the ongoing martial arts and fitness programs there. Over 100 adults have earned their black belts and 25 have gone on to complete teacher training and now instruct at Thousand Waves or in their own Seido karate programs. In addition, 31 youth and teens have earned a junior black belt and play leadership roles in the Center's popular Camp Kokoro for youth. More than 1000 people have graduated from the Center's acclaimed Five Fingers of Self-Defense 12-hour course, and hundreds more participate each year in workshops offered at schools, non-profit agencies, and corporations across Chicago.
In addition to her work at Thousand Waves, Nancy has presented workshops for the National Women's Martial Arts Federation, the Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors, and the World Seido Karate Organization. She has served on both the New York City Mayors Task Force on Rape and the City of Chicago's Advisory Council on Women as a member of the violence committee. She was a co-founder of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project, and was inducted into the City of Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1993.
Nancy holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Asian studies and a M.I.A. degree from Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs with a specialization in communications. Before embarking on her path as a teacher, she worked as a journalist in New York City.
Director of Violence Prevention Programs:
Marie O'Brien began her training in martial arts and violence prevention in 1993 at Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self-Defense Center. Marie is certified as a self-defense instructor by the National Women's Martial Arts Federation. In 2006 she was selected to teach a multi-session self-defense course at Special Training, the annual camp of the National Women's Martial Arts Federation, where she modeled best practices and empowerment-based self-defense for 90 women and teens, including self-defense teachers from the U.S. and beyond. She has furthered her professional development in annual conferences taught by nationally known instructors, where she has studied traditional martial arts as well as advanced self-defense techniques and theory. She holds the rank of 3rd degree black belt in Seido Karate and 1st degree black belt in Kajukenbo Kung Fu.
As Director of Violence Prevention Programs at Thousand Waves, Marie develops and teaches programs for adults, teens, and youth. She has presented seminars for corporate clients, non-profit agencies, schools, and youth organizations across Chicago and in the suburbs, including
specialized programs such as travel safety, violence prevention for LGBT youth, de-escalation strategies, and dating violence. Additionally, Marie runs the teacher training for instructors in Thousand Waves' Violence Prevention programs, which to date has produced 8 staff instructors and 4 assistants.
Marie holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and has been an educator in several fields: cultural studies, science, and English as a Second Language. She has developed and run teacher training programs, with a focus on best practice methods. She was a trained peer counselor for 2 years on a Chicago area hotline.
Kate Webster, Associate Director of Violence Prevention, holds a 2nd degree black belt in Seido Karate, and teaches in both the violence prevention and martial arts programs of Thousand Waves. Previously, she was an instructor in Chimera's Self-Defense for Women program in Chicago and student of Shotokan Karate. She is certified by the National Women's Martial Arts Federation as a self-defense instructor. Kate holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Education from the University of Chicago and spent several years living in Kenya researching gender equity and violence issues against schools girls. Currently, she is an adjunct professor in sociology and women's studies at Roosevelt University.
Triston Alvarez began his association with Thousand Waves at the age of 10 in 1992, when he enrolled in the youth karate program. In the years since, he has earned a 4th degree black belt in Seido Karate, a 1st degree black belt in Kajukenbo Kung Fu, and has completed the Violence Prevention Teacher Training program. Triston is currently a senior staff instructor in Thousand Waves' martial arts and violence prevention programs, while also working towards his college degree.
Susan Barney holds a 2nd degree black belt in Seido Karate. She completed the Thousand Waves Violence Prevention Teacher Training Program, and has participated in the National Women's Martial Arts Federation's Self-Defense Instructor Training Conference. Susan is also a licensed and national certified massage therapist and bodywork instructor.
Jeff Edwards holds a 2nd degree black belt in Seido Karate, having trained in this martial art since 1999. In early 2006, he completed a Thousand Waves teaching apprenticeship. In 2006 he co-taught a week-long violence prevention and self-defense course for teenagers at Thousand Waves. He holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota, and is a professor of political science and women's and gender studies at Roosevelt University.
Michal Eskayo holds a 1st degree black belt in Seido Karate. She has been teaching violence prevention courses at Thousand Waves and in the Chicago community since 2003. In addition to the teacher training courses at Thousand Waves, she has participated in self-defense and martial arts training through the National Women's Martial Arts Federation. She is a professor in the ESL/FL Department at Harold Washington College.
Peggy Shinner is an instructor in all the martial arts and violence prevention programs offered by Thousand Waves. She holds a 4th degree black belt in Seido Karate and a 1st degree black belt in Kajukenbo Kung Fu. She has completed the Thousand Waves Violence Prevention Teacher Training Program; attended the Self Defense Teacher's Conference at the National Women's Martial Arts Federation Special Training Camp in 2006; and also completed the NWMAF's 9 session Self-Defense Track for teachers. A fiction writer and essayist, she currently teaches at Roosevelt University.