Dr. Jolie Bookspan, MEd, PhD, FAWM, is a 4th degree black belt in Shotokan karate and undefeated full contact Muay Thai fighter, earning the title Kruu Muay. She trained with several of the pioneers of martial arts and with the monks of Japan, Nepal, and Thailand. Dr. Bookspan is a former military research physiologist, professor of anatomy, and sports medicine specialist known around the world for developing techniques that change medicine for the better. Her training and injury rehabilitation techniques, used by police, military, athletes, and top rehab centers, are so successful that Harvard Medical School clinicians named her The St. Jude of the Joints. Paralyzed in a non-fighting accident, she rehabbed herself over years to walk again, and started over as a white belt until earning her black belt a second time. More severely injured in a second non-fighting accident, she again worked years to walk, train, teach, and compete. Jolie and her husband Paul were inducted into the Eastern USA International Black Belt Hall of Fame. Together they teach martial arts at Temple University and at their dojo, and were named Black Belt Man and Woman of the Year 2004 and Instructors of the Year 2009.
