Welcome & Meditation
Dr. Scott Lyons · 30-minute experiential session
An opening meditation and welcome to set the tone for a day of embodied leadership exploration.
Session 1 — Leadership as Embodying the Future You Long For
Pete Hamill · 75-minute experiential session
Embodied leadership begins with paying attention to what you want to bring forth in your work and life. What you long for requires transformation — and transformation begins with the question: Who do I need to be to bring this forth in the world? A journey toward embodying the future you long for.
Session 2 — Embodying the Mystery: The Soma as a Doorway to Spirit for Leaders
Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler · 75-minute experiential session
In a time of climate crisis, racial injustice, and political upheaval, today's leaders must be guided by Spirit alongside rational, analytical thinking. Explore the distinctions of embodiment, mystery, soma, and spirit — both in theory and practice — as essential foundations of exemplary leadership.
Session 3 — Leading with the We: Embodied Leadership for Equity, Justice, and Sustainability
Staci Haines · 75-minute experiential session
Embodied leadership lets us viscerally discover our longings, inherent empathy, and knowing of interdependence — while also recognizing the patterns and survival strategies we've absorbed from our families and communities. Somatics offers pragmatic tools to align vision and values with ways of being, hold complexity, and lead with presence, resilience, and connection.
Session 4 — Meditations on Embodied Leadership
Dr. Angel Acosta · 60-minute experiential session
Explore embodied leadership in relation to the most generative leadership theories of the past decades. Drawing on extensive research, Angel situates embodied leadership in a long lineage of modalities that have moved communities forward in response to structural violence and inequality — naming the perennial truth that we have always put our bodies on the line.
Session 5 — Embodied Organizing
Rusia Mohiuddin · 75-minute experiential session
For over 50 years, social justice work has galvanized people primarily through self-interest. Integrating somatics into a social justice framework gives organizers new tools to understand more holistically how and why individuals and communities act. A brief introduction to Embodied Organizing — a comprehensive model that develops effective organizers while building the balance and self-care needed to sustain movement work for the long haul.
