Sifu Restita DeJesus
- Specialty:Kajukenbo, Tai Chi, Wushu, and Filipino martial arts
- Teaching:Stick and Knife Defense
- Date:March 23rd, 2024
Sifu Restita DeJesus is the Founder and Chief Instructor of Seattle Wushu Center. She has studied martial arts since 1978, and holds black belt certifications in Butokukan Karate, Kajukenbo, Kyudo, FMAA Eskrima/Kali/Silat (Petrilli Method), Cacoy Canete's Doce Pares Eskrima, Cacoy Canete Pangamot, Cacoy Canete’s Eskrido, Chinese contemporary Wushu, Chen Taijiquan and Yang Taijiquan.
In her spare time, her hobbies include meditation, reading, paracord crafts, knife throwing, bullwhip trick cracking, archery, target blowgun shooting and target slingshot shooting. She is also an ordained Interfaith Minister and practices Reiki.
Outside of teaching, Restita is Lifetime member of the Association of Women's Martial Arts Instructors (AWMAI) and an AWMAI Hall of fame Inductee (2013), served on the board of directors for the Pacific Association of Women Martial Artists (PAWMA), an inductee in the Cacoy Doce Pares World Federation Hall of Fame (2012), an inductee in the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Honors (2014) and USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame (2015, 2016, 2017), and a member of the National Qigong Association. She was inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame in 2011, and served as an Executive Board Member to the Masters Hall of Fame.
Her personal philosophy: "Always keep an open enough mind to learn from anything and anyone. Any person can be your teacher."