Meet The Team

The Executive Team

Melody

Melody Johnson

SKILLZ Creator
Child Development Expert
Chief Executive Officer

With over 30 years in the martial arts, Melody has achieved many accomplishments in her Martial Arts journey, including dedicating a lot of her time researching and developing some of the best methods for teaching children.  

In 2000, Melody presented her first innovative program, the Little Ninjas, to the Martial Arts industry. Today that program is operating in over 2,000 schools.

Melody’s latest career move is the development of her age-specific curricula branded as SKILLZ. The very first of its kind, SKILLZ is getting a lot of attention for its systematic approach to skill-based Martial Arts training, and is endorsed by some of the nation’s leading child psychologists, including the late Dr. Ruth Peters. Currently there are over 1100 licensed SKILLZ schools on almost every continent.

Melody resides in St. Petersburg Florida. She has a young son named Van. 

Sperry

Jeff Sperry

Chief
Technical
Director

Jeff has been involved with SKILLZ as a web developer since its move from paper Drill Manuals to the SKILLZ Online platform currently in use today.

Jeff brainstormed with Melody Johnson while his son was a student at her Martial Arts School to bring the SKILLZ Curriculum to other schools around the world, thus was born SKILLZConnect.

Jeff is a self-taught website developer with 10 plus years of experience and has personally developed every SKILLZ platform to date since its inception.

Currently, Jeff continues to update the SKILLZ Online platform as well as provide technical support for SKILLZ members.

He is also the Lead Website Architect at Market Muscles, where he has personally built and launched hundreds of websites for martial arts schools around the world.

The Experts

Rebecca Epperson SKILLZ Worldwide e1634043836790

Rebecca Epperson

SKILLZ Expert Early / Basic SKILLZ

Rebecca is a 4th Degree black belt and has been training in martial arts for 15 years.

Within those 15 years, she was able to switch to On the Mat and start training in the SKILLZ curriculum for about 8 years.

After a year of being at On the Mat, she began attending Instructor Certifications, learning the stages of development for children, as well as curriculum certification to learn the SKILLZ curriculum as well as possible.

She’s also a Certified Pediatric Ninja Specialist.

One of her biggest goals since starting martial arts is to own her own school one day and continue inspiring and mentoring more kids!

Tae

Tae Yun

Tech Ninja

Tae Yun, a 7th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a 6th in Hapkido, has been the owner of Columbia Tae Kwon Do in the Albany, New York area since 1992.

Tae launched his school’s first website in 1997, in the early days of the internet. Because the cost to have a professionally built website at the time was well beyond his school’s budget, he taught himself how to build websites.

After decades of building websites for friends and family, in 2017, Tae started up his media consulting agency to offer digital marketing services to business clients and charity organizations.

He leveraged his love for technology and combined it with his years business experience to turn a fun hobby into a thriving second business by sharing his expertise with others.

Dee

Dee Ann Wilcox

SKILLZ Administrator

Dee Ann Wilcox, a 6th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, has been training and instructing martial arts for over 25 years. Dee Ann Wilcox is co-owner of Rev It Up, with two locations. One in West Berlin Township, New Jersey and one in Berlin Borough, New Jersey.

Having instructors who embraced different styles of martial arts has given her a unique collection of tools and techniques which has helped shape her into the instructor she is today.

Rev It Up has incorporated SKILLZ into their existing martial arts program and has developed SKILLZ Special Abilities Martial Arts and Fitness programs customized for each individual’s personal needs.

Dee Ann believes that Martial Arts is a way of life. Her passion is teaching people and empowering them to grow in mind, body and spirit!

Chasity Scarberry

Community Manager
Social Media Manager

School Owners!

Our Team Is Dedicated
To Your Success