Lisa Chen Shamoo
Rank: 3rd Sandan
Country of Birth: USA (parents from China)
Karate
1.Yale university, 1985-1986 (chief instructor, Sensei Kazumi Tabata. Mostly we learned from his brown belt students. He came once per 2 weeks)
2. Yale university, 1986-1988 (instructor Anton Bilchik, a shodan student of Sensei Stan schmidt, who came from South Africa to instruct once)
3. Columbia university, 1989-1002 (Sensei Kazumi Tabata)
4. Yale university 1994-1999 (black belt instructors who were students of Sensei Mori)
5. 1999-present (Shotokan Karate-Do Center, our Dojo!)
Current belt – 3rd Sandan
I tested for Shodan in New York with Sensei Mori, after my second try, in 1995.
I tested for Nidan in Connecticut with Sensei Mori.
I tested for Sandan with Sensei Murakami in Houston.
Life
I was born in West Virginia, but grew up in South Carolina.
I went to Yale university as an undergraduate, and then to Columbia university, p&s for medical school.
After that, I did 7 years of general surgery residency at Yale and a year of colorectal surgery residency at University of Texas Health Sciences Center.
I am a colon and rectal surgeon, in my tenth year of practice.
My husband is Yousif Shamoo. He teaches biochemistry at Rice University. We have been together for 23 years. I have two wonderful daughters, Raven (5 years old) and Devin (3 years old).
English is my first language. I also speak “Spanglish” and have forgotten all of my German.
