Rockwood Community Calls are a FREE online event series created to support leaders from everywhere within the social justice ecosystem so that you can feel connected, supported, and replenished.

Every other month, we host a 60-minute Zoom call with a teacher, healer, leader, activist, artist, or speaker who will hold space for whatever our collective spirit is seeking in that moment.

Everyone is welcome, whether you’ve been through a Rockwood program or this is the first you’ve heard of us. Register for the next call and give yourself the gift of space, ease, and joy in your workday.

July 31, 2025 | Norma Wong

 Join us for a virtual gathering for reflection, connection, and conversation as we welcome Norma Wong sharing her new and very timely book, When No Thing Works: A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse. This powerful work distills years of Norma’s teachings and arrives at a moment when so many of us are holding both deep loss and profound possibility in our hearts.

Norma Wong (Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi) is a Native Hawaiian and Hakka life-long resident of Hawaiʻi. She is the abbot of Anko-in, an independent branch temple of Daihonzan Chozen-ji and serves practice communities in Hawai‘i, across the continental U.S., and in Toronto, Canada. She is an 86th generation Zen Master, having trained at Chozen-ji for over 40 years.

In earlier years, Wong served as a Hawai‘i state legislator, on the policy and strategy team for Governor John Waihee with federal and Native Hawaiian portfolios. She led teams to negotiate agreements on the munitions cleanup of Kahoʻolawe Island, ceded land revenue for Native Hawaiians, and the return of lands and settlement of land issues for Hawaiian Home Lands. She was active in electoral politics for over thirty years.

In recent years, Wong has been called back into service to facilitate breaking the impasse and transforming policy and governance on issues of seeming contradiction. In the conflict between native culture/science and western discovery science posing as a dispute over the construction of a telescope on Mauna Kea, Wong was a team member narrating and facilitating a path forward through mutual stewardship. She is currently an advisor to Speaker of the Hawai‘i House of Representatives Scott Saiki, serving in policy development and facilitation roles on issues such as the protection of the aquifer from fuel contamination at Red Hill, and the long-term response to the Lahaina wildfires.

Norma has spent many years in the applied space – the direct application of indigenous and Zen ways, values and practices to living and transformational change critical to our times. Norma is part of the Collective Acceleration community of practice.

 

September 25, 2025 | Ejeris Dixon & Robert Gass

Join us for a powerful conversation with Robert Gass and Ejeris Dixon where we’ll discuss the past, present and future of movement leadership, and learn the vital practices needed to lead during the rise of fascism.  

Ejeris Dixon is an organizer, writer, and strategist with 25 years of experience leading organizations within racial justice, LGBTQ, anti-violence, abolitionist, transformative justice and economic justice movements. They are the Founding Director of Ejerie Labs where they focus on building movement strategy towards creating transformative futures and curtailing rising fascism. Ejeris serves as the host of the Fascism Barometer, a podcast and learning hub that discusses fascism’s rise in the United States, and how to organize against it. Ejeris is also the co-editor of Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha. Over the past twenty-five years Ejeris has directly worked on thousands of incidents of violence and directly organized around more than a hundred murders of Queer and Trans People of Color.

Learn more about Ejeris at ejeris.com. 

  

Robert Gass, EdD was the creator of the original Rockwood methodology and curriculum and trained the early cohorts of Rockwood trainers. For over 40 years, he has coached, trained, and facilitated leaders, organizations, and networks working for justice, sustainability, and human dignity. His work is a weaving of his lifetime of experience and learning in social change, humanistic psychology, organizational transformation, movement building, and meditation/spirituality.

Learn more about Robert at robertgass.com.

  

November 6, 2025 | Prentis Hemphill 

 Join us in resilience and personal ecology as we engage in an embodied exploration of how we might choose deeper connections in times of stress and crisis. We will practice learning and remembering how to reach for each other.

Prentis Hemphill is the bestselling author of What It Takes to Heal, a groundbreaking exploration of healing, justice, and transformation. A therapist, somatics teacher, facilitator, political organizer, and writer, Prentis is also the founder of The Embodiment Institute and a leading voice in embodied leadership and collective healing.

For over a decade, Prentis has worked with individuals and organizations through their most challenging moments of change—navigating leadership transitions, conflict, and the alignment of practice with values. Grounded in an embodied approach, their work ensures that our intentions aren't just ideas, but are fully lived, felt, and practiced.

Before founding The Embodiment Institute, Prentis served as the Healing Justice Director at Black Lives Matter Global Network and was a lead somatics teacher with generative somatics and Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD). They hold an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and have provided therapeutic services in low-cost mental health clinics, centering marginalized communities.

Prentis has contributed to Atlas of the Heart (Brené Brown), The Politics of Trauma (Staci K. Haines), You Are Your Best Thing (edited by Brené Brown & Tarana Burke), and Holding Change (adrienne maree brown). They are also the creator and host of the acclaimed podcasts Finding Our Way and Becoming the People, which have surpassed over a million downloads.

At its core, Prentis’ work challenges the complacency of mainstream therapeutic models, infusing healing with the rigor of justice, repair, and accountability. They believe that reclaiming feeling and relationship creates space for true transformation—in ourselves, our movements, and the world.

Prentis lives on a small farm in Durham, NC, with their partner, Kasha, their child, and two dogs.

Learn more about Prentis at prentishemphill.com.