ABOUT

Jessie Bowen
Executive Director

In 2003, The American Martial Arts Alliance was established by Grandmaster Jessie Bowen, former regional director for the American Martial Arts Association, 10th-degree black belt, author, motivational speaker, and life success coach. Grandmaster Bowen has been a student in the martial arts for over 40 years, touching the lives of thousands of martial artists.

Fulfilling A Need In The Martial Arts

The martial arts dominated almost from its beginning by the bias opinions of who is the best and which is the best. The American Martial Arts Foundation is an organization for everyone. Especially the martial artists that want to learn how to have a better life through the principles taught in martial arts. Through my frustration watching politics in the martial arts, I decided to make a difference by creating an organization founded on truth, honor, and integrity.

After coming out of retirement as a competitor in 2002, I traveled to Hawaii to compete in what I was led to believe is a sanction martial arts event by the USOC. Only to learn that the event was a fraudulent event and receiving a letter in the mail notifying me that this event I attended had nothing to do with USOC events. After I got over my anger about going to this event and spending a lot of money to get there, I decided the best way to get back was to form my own organization American Martial Arts Alliance LLC, in 2002.

The American Martial Arts Alliance launched in 2003. We hosted the AMAA Hall of Fame, the AMAA Business Summit, the AMAA Nationals Martial Arts Championship, and the AMAA Sport Karate League.

In 2005, we paid tribute to my teacher O'Sensei Jan Wellendorf and his business partner Dale Brooks for their contributions to the martial arts. This was also the launch of the Who's Who in the Martial Arts Autobiography Book. Since then, we have published five other books featuring martial artists from all over the world sharing their story of how martial arts has impacted their lives.

In October of 2019, the organization changed its name from the American Martial Arts Alliance to the American Martial Arts Alliance Institute. Today our focus is education and personal development for martial artists wanting to grow their martial arts industry.

January 2020, we are growing the organization to a new level through our nonprofit organization, the American Martial Arts Alliance Foundation. The foundation will work towards helping underprivileged kids get experience in the martial arts and business owners who are members of the American Martial Arts Alliance Institute to receive grants for building their martial arts programs. If you are one of those individuals looking for an organization you can connect with for making a difference, then I invite you to become a member of the American Martial Arts Alliance.

About Grandmaster Jessie Bowen

Grandmaster Bowen is an expert in life success, sports performance training, and international business coaching. He is a corporate educator for Duke Corporate Education and trains executives on how to break through barriers to achieve their next level of success. He is the President and Owner of Karate International of Durham, Inc. and Elite Corporate Coaching.

He opened his martial arts school in 1980 in Durham, NC, running a successful school with hundreds of students under his leadership. Hosting one of the longest-running martial arts tournaments in North Carolina, the Durham Karate Open, established in 1979, Grandmaster Bowen is the former coach of the Duke University Taekwondo Team, former martial arts coach for the University of North Carolina of Chapel Hill football team, former sports coordinator for the NCAS and the USOC Olympic Festival. He was inducted into numerous martial arts halls of fame for his martial arts achievements, including the Action Martial Arts Magazine Hall of Honors 2018 Contribution in Publishing Award for 2018 Who's Who in the Martial Arts book.

As an educator, he has been on the Duke University Physical Education staff for over 20 years, influencing thousands of students in mind-body training. Hanshi Bowen is also a professional bowler (PBA Member) and bowling instructor of physical education at Duke University. He has published over 20 books on personal development training, including the 2015 & 2018 Who's Who in the Martial Arts Autobiography Book, Unstoppable Confidence, Change Your Mind, Change Your Life Success Guide, Get Motivated - the Key to Success, Zen Mind-Body Meditation System - Meditation for Everyday Living, and others.