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Mary Heiny is a 6th dan aikido teacher and prominent student of Michio Hikitsuchi. She is one of the first American women to train for an extended period in Japan with the intensity like that of an uchi-deshi and was sempai for a generation of instructors including other senior women in aikido such as Linda Holiday, Danielle Molles Smith, and Patricia Hendricks.

For several years, she introduced students from the United States to Hikitsuchi-sensei (or refused to as his health failed). She was instrumental in the development of much of aikido community in the United States and Canada, helping to found or develop at least three dojos in different locations.

She began training in 1968 after seeing Morihei Ueshiba teach a class in 1965 and was a student at the aikikai and directly with Hikitsuchi-sensei until 1973.