About Us

Our History and Leadership

Villari’s Martial Arts is part of a nation-wide system of schools founded by Grandmaster Fredrick J Villari in 1968. Master Mary Murphy Edwards (7th degree black belt) ran a school in Montreal, Canada where she taught classes in English and French from 1985-1989. In 1989 she opened the Madison school at 532 State St. Master Murphy specialized in T’ai Chi which she taught extensively at Teff Chiropractic for adults with limited mobility. In 1999 she designed our popular Master Kickboxing program, which takes the fighting principles of Shaolin Kempo Karate and applies them in a fun, high-intensity cardio workout. Our program was the first in the Madison area to combine the best of cardio kickboxing and actual martial arts, and continues to evolve with new fitness research and trends.

In 2007 Master Murphy moved to Texas, and her daughter Ali Treviño-Murphy (3rd degree black belt) took her place as manager and chief instructor of the school. Ali actively participates in sexual assault prevention activism and education, and teaches our SAFE—Women’s Self Defense classes, which she designed collaboratively with Master Murphy.

In April of 2010 we were honored with a visit from Grandmaster Villari, who personally promoted two of our senior instructors to Master rank (5th degree black belt). Master Marcus Meier and Master Jennifer Endres have studied Shaolin Kempo Karate since 1994 and have each taught classes for almost 10 years. Their outstanding degree of experience, skill and excellence in teaching is one of the greatest strengths of our martial arts program. They developed our Instructor Certification Program, which graduated its first class in 2011. We are committed to high-quality, personalized instruction in all our classes here at Villari’s Martial Arts.

In 2012, we transitioned to cooperative ownership and management. Our current officers and directors are:

Officers of the Board of Directors

President- Master Mary Murphy Edwards, 7th degree black belt
Vice President- Wave Kasprzak, 4th degree black belt
Vice President- Ali Treviño-Murphy, 3rd degree black belt
Secretary- Ginny Divine, 3rd degree black belt
Treasurer- Holly Storck-Post, kickboxing instructor

Directors of Operations

Martial Arts Director- Wave Kasprzak, 4th degree black belt
Office Director- Ginny Divine, 3rd degree black belt
Outreach Director- Ali Treviño-Murphy, 3rd degree black belt
Financial Director- Holly Storck-Post, kickboxing instructor
Kickboxing Director- Curtis Rueden, 2nd degree black belt