Meet the DART Team

As a founding Board member, her experience includes selling workplace violence training to business clients and working with schools and private organizations to provide DateSmart - Healthy Relationships and Teen Dating Abuse Prevention to 8th grade students.

She has been intricately involved in customization of curriculum to fit client needs. She has recruited and trained new instructors. Ms. Dusenbery has also participated in fundraising activities and has been primarily responsible for grant writing.

She received a BA in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire in 1977. Ms. Dusenbery then spent 22 years in the medical/dental field doing office work of every variety.

She studied the martial arts for 11 years and taught every age group. She developed and taught the children's program for her school. Michele retired as a martial arts instructor with a rank of 2nd degree Black Belt.

He has a research background in space physics and received his Ph.D. in physics from the Univ. of New Hampshire and B.A. in physics from Whitman College.

He has over thirty years' experience developing formal and informal education programs. He also led and participated in numerous professional development workshops for classroom and informal educators. He was the director of SSI's STAR Library Network (STAR Net) from 2011-2021.

Paul is an expert in self-defense and personal safety, having taught martial arts for 35 years. In addition to running a martial arts school, he developed a successful personal safety course called Fight Back 101.

He was a founding board member of DART, DART's Curriculum Director, and a senior instructor. He led the development of DART's Level 1 and Verbal De-escalation courses (in-person and online), and its Trainer-the-Trainer courses as well as DART's instructor training program. He has also written several DART blogs that are on DART's website.

With over 50 patents and international publications, he brings deep expertise in internet technologies, cloud computing, cybersecurity, AR/VR, AI, and emerging platforms. His work consistently translates advanced technologies into scalable, market-defining solutions.

As a Venture Partner at 3Lines, Sumanth evaluates more than 800 scale-ups annually, identifying breakthrough technologies and high-impact opportunities. He also advises Boards and CEOs of growth-stage companies on navigating disruption, leveraging frontier technologies, scaling operations, and building enduring competitive advantage.

His advisory and mentorship affiliations include: Bridge Entrepreneurs Network, Antler, Techstars, Rockies Venture Club, among others.

Mark's diverse legal career includes service as an Air Force Judge Advocate, Special Asst. U.S. Attorney, Municipal Judge for the City of Boulder, and chairperson of the editorial board of The Colorado Lawyer magazine.

Mark is an expert in the law of workplace violence and the law of self-defense. He wrote the workplace violence chapter in the Colorado Employment Law Handbook. He also authored an article in The Colorado Lawyer on Effective Elements of a Workplace Violence Program. He wrote an article on the law of self-defense that was published in Inside Kung-Fu.

His practice includes consulting with employers on workplace violence policies. Mark earned a black belt in Shudokan karate and is a certified DART instructor. In 2022, Colorado Governor Jared Polis appointed Mark to the Colorado Combative Sports Commission (formerly the Colorado Boxing Commission).

Mark provides valuable advice to DART on DART's programs and legal issues. Learn more about him on his website http://www.cohenslaw.com/

After serving in the US Army, he received his MBA at Arizona State University and a Master of International Business from Thunderbird (American Graduate School for International Management).

Tom is a 5th degree black belt in karate, but has studied many different arts during his travels. He opened his own schools while in the military as well as after he returned to his home state of Colorado.

Tom has 20 years of non-profit service and has lived and worked on four continents. He helped develop DART's business plan and curriculum and has personally taught some of the material.

She formed her own law firm and currently practices law in the fields of family law and small business matters. She's a certified DART instructor (lead and assistant) and has worked for Mark Cohen at his law firm.

Her Ph.D. in Operations Research contributed to new approaches to expanding access and improving quality in healthcare services. She also earned an M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and provides mental health counseling to individuals and couples to help clients develop skills for coping, communication, and healthy relationships. She has published books and articles, and taught workshops and university courses, in process improvement, clinical appointment scheduling, quality management, hiring and human resources, service operations management, business statistics, and Mental Health First Aid.

She has served as a mentor to several health technology startup companies to measure service quality and outcomes and to publicize the value of their work. Linda helps organizations apply their resources effectively to ensure maximum benefits and high-quality customer experiences, and coaches people to utilize their strengths and enhance their quality of life.

Melinda is a certified DART instructor and is the DateSmart manager and instructor for the middle school program.

She has helped edit & create new online platforms for DART's WorkSmart and DateSmart curriculums and designs promotional flyers. Outside of DART she has been working with high schoolers for 16 years, co-leading and now leading a church youth group.

Melinda loves being crafty, is a Colorado native and went to school at Metropolitan State University.