Professor Charles Anthony Mattera has spent nearly six decades building a career in martial arts, self-defense, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Mattera began martial arts training as a teenager, studying Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, Kung Fu, and eventually Chinese Kenpo, which became the foundation of his martial arts career. He earned his first-degree black belt while attending Northeastern University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminology.

While at Northeastern, Mattera was selected for the university's specialized ROTC Counter-Guerrilla Group, receiving intensive field training from U.S. Army Green Berets. After college, he worked at Boston Police Headquarters and later joined the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Customs in New York as a Customs Enforcement Officer.

Although he originally planned a career in federal law enforcement, Mattera ultimately realized that martial arts was his true calling. In 1971, he opened his first martial arts studio in Melrose, Massachusetts. The studio quickly became successful, leading to additional locations and, eventually, a much larger vision.

Mattera went on to become one of the driving forces behind United Studios of Self Defense, helping develop a network that ultimately grew to more than 500 martial arts studios across the United States. Through the United Studios system, more than one million students have been taught directly or indirectly, and thousands of black belts have been developed.

After moving his family to Southern California in 1984, Mattera led a major expansion of the organization throughout the western United States. His approach helped turn martial arts instruction into not only a discipline, but a professional career path for generations of instructors and studio owners.

Throughout his career, Mattera continued to study Kenpo along with numerous other martial arts systems, including Shotokan, Tae Kwon Do, Jiu-Jitsu, Aikido, Hung Gar, Tai Chi, Goju, and traditional Chinese fighting arts.

His work also helped establish a significant relationship between United Studios of Self Defense and China's legendary Shaolin Temple, culminating in recognition of USSD with a UNESCO monument associated with the temple.

Mattera considers his greatest accomplishment not simply the size of the organization he helped create, but the impact it has had on people's lives. Through United Studios of Self Defense, martial arts became a source of confidence, discipline, physical fitness, professional opportunity, and personal growth for generations of students and instructors.

After nearly 60 years in martial arts, Professor Mattera's legacy can be measured in more than studios, black belts, and students. It is found in the organization he built, the instructors whose careers he helped create, and the lives changed through the philosophy and discipline of martial arts.