Dr. Judy Flury

THE DOCTOR IN THE DOJANG!

Reflecting on the remarkable career of Dr. Judy Flury of Grand Prairie, Texas, it quickly becomes clear that she is fearless and does not waste time. 

She was hooked on tae kwon do from her first class as a 12-year old, and within five years, she opened her own school at the ripe age of 17! 

She also recognized early that she had a passion for working with children, maybe because she was one.

While running her school full-time as a teenager, she started college and then graduate school, where she earned a doctorate in personality psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Her dissertation in 2004 focused on developing a method to accurately measure indicators of borderline personality disorder. 

That personality scaling instrument, the “Sense of Self Scale,” has since been validated and is in use today by researchers and practitioners in the mental health field. 

Dr. Flury is the author of, Raising a Real Winner: How to Teach Your Child the Qualities of Success and has authored and co-authored many manuals, book chapters, and articles in various peer-reviewed journals of the American Psychological Association.

In the 1990s, Dr. Flury was named “Instructor of the Year” by the USA-Korean Karate Association for three years until the association decided to limit the number of times a single instructor could win the award. 

She is currently on the Martial Arts Teachers Association’s Certification Board of Advisors and a member of Game Changers International.

After running a successful martial arts school for 34-years, as if she had nothing else to do, she earned her certification as a special education teacher and got certified to teach pre-k–6th-grade general education.

She is currently teaching general education and may have redefined the idea of educational breakthroughs because her 3rd-grade class gets to break boards when they earn high grades!

Dr. Flury is married and has one son and three Chihuahuas. In addition to martial arts and psychology, she enjoys reading, shooting, spending time with her family, and practicing her Christian faith. 

She has been a member of the Martial Arts Teachers’ Association (MATA) since its founding in 1993 and is an Empower Kickboxing™ school.

MATA is proud to recognize Dr. Judy Flury, Ph.D. as a stellar model of courage, drive, and execution.