About Your Executive Board Members

Sheila Haddad, Chairperson

Sheila has been the director of several self defense programs, and currently manages her Seido Institute which comprises both self protection training and martial arts. She has taught full force self defense workshops of all levels for girls, teenagers and adult women. Her current focus is not only on the physical, but the psychological aspects of trauma and abuse, broadening awareness, and developing intuition and sensitivities for prevention purposes. She stays current with issues facing women and girls in our society. Sheila welcomes your comments, suggestions and participation with AWSDA. You can email her at: shaddad@awsda.org and visit her website at: www.livingtheway.com

Susan Baldwin, Vice Chair

Susan is a retired US Army Special Agent. She has been teaching women's self defense courses since 1975. Susan is a certified Instructor and Master Instructor in various modalities of "personal protection," such as: firearms, defensive tactics, Taser, baton, as well as SCUBA, parachuting, etc. Susan has attained a 4th and 3rd degree black belt in Ninjutsu and Shotokan, respectfully. During her career as a special agent, she served as a supervisor of the Sec. Defenses security detail, two combat tours in Desert Storm (where she earned a Bronze Star), and helped start the first full-time Federal Air Marshal Div. in 1998. Susan has worked as a criminal investigator for a State Office of the Public Defender, was reserve police Lieutenant, is currently an Inspector with the DHS, and owner of the Personal Protection Institute, LLC. Susan is also a Master Hypnotherapist, Reiki Master, NLP Practitioner, and certified Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA) Examiner. You can email Susan at: sbaldwin@awsda.org

Darla Bolon

I am Darla Bolon and have been a member of AWSDA since 1994, when I attended my first seminar in Lexington, KY. I've been passionate about the organization ever since and am committed to helping advance the mission of empowering women through education, information, and skills training.

I am from Columbus, Ohio, and been teaching self-defense for over 20 years. I regularly teach classes at Ohio State University and for the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program (teaching personal safety classes to child protective workers around the state of Ohio). I also offer classes in the community (for businesses, organizations, social service agencies, schools). And that's my part-time job! My full-time work is as a clinical social worker and mental health therapist. I have my own counseling practice where I specialize in women's issues and trauma-recovery. I work with both men and women in the areas of depression, anxiety, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault/rape.

I have 15, or so, years of training in martial arts (Tae Kwon Do and Aikido) though am not currently training in martial arts.

As a long-time member of AWSDA, I have presented at the annual seminar several times and have been a state and regional representative for the organization. I was inspired to step-up my involvement because of my commitment to the vision of reaching and teaching women to empower themselves through self-defense. I also want to see that the tremendous efforts of all the dedicated people who have contributed so much to the history and energy of this organization continue.

I look forward to working with all of you!

You can email Darla at dbolon@awsda.org.

Randi Smith-Todorowski

I am excited about the opportunity to be involved as a Board Member and I look forward to working with you.

I joined AWSDA last year in an effort to expand my network. I live in Scottsdale, AZ and own Atlas Martial Arts (www.atlasmartialarts.com) We teach kung fu, tai chi and women's self-empowerment/self-defense, both at the school and online. My vision in naming the business Atlas was to have a Global influence and impact. Recently, we have formed the Martial Honor Association in an effort to unite those people willing to share positive influence and inspiration; and change the direction martial arts has gone in. We also developed an online library and hope to preserve the teachings of many masters before they pass. In an effort to better promote personal protection, I am an authorized TASER dealer. My vision for stepping up in AWSDA is to be apart of a unified team with global influence in inspiring women to experience personal freedom.

You can email Randi at rsmith-todorowski@awsda.org.

Cathy Lewis

I am Cathy Lewis, probably one of the newest members, joining AWSDA this past year. I live in Irvine, California where I teach martial arts, Bujinkan Budo, and self-protection courses. I am certified as a Reiki III master and Hatha Yoga instructor although I earn a living in the finance world – imagine how fun that is now!

I saw an organization with a great capacity of empowerment for women during a time of such chaos. I only can imagine what it will be like without this “disarray”. My vision is to help get it back on track, have the membership increase exponentially due to the synergy that once existed and will be created (I hope) again. I believe self-protection/self-defense comes from awareness and knowledge, influencing freedom and the power to make choices to live life fully.

You can email Cathy at clewis@awsda.org.

Teri Bahnfleth

I joined AWSDA in May after attending the ILEETA conference.

I live in East Peoria, Illinois where I have lived the majority of my life. I have a background of 10 yrs law enforcement and 20 yrs military, 5 of which were active duty military police.

I have been involved in teaching most of my career. Subjects include everything from sexual harassment prevention to handcuffing and defensive tactics.

I am currently the training manager of security at the riverboat casino.

Here I am a certified instructor in criminal law, use of force, defensive tactics, handcuffing, management of aggressive behavior, ocat pepperspray, counterpreditorism, and a few others.

I am currently working toward my certification in Fight Like a Girl and Girls on Guard. With this I am working with the local women's shelter to provide self defense and rape prevention as well as with my community and other organizations.

I hope to be able to provide guidance and leadership to further the education and training of women. We hold the ability to change the world and it does no good if we don't fight to make a change!

I am a very strong and dedicated person to making a difference.

You can email Teri at tbahnfleth@awsda.org.

Ruth Covey

I'm Ruth Covey - born in England, reared in South Africa and currently living in Fountain Hills, Arizona. My involvement in women's self defense started in 2001 when I volunteered as Director of the Police Combative Training Academy. It has been my privilege to see how empowering self-defense training is, especially for women. My fulltime job is overseeing Quality and Security for Armor Designs, Inc. - a company focused R & D and manufacturing of leading-edge materials used in body armor and other ballistic mitigation products. My goal as an AWSDA Board member is to help expand the global interest and participation in women's self defense initiatives.

You can email Ruth at rcovey@awsda.org.