Rockwood Staff

Akaya Windwood, President

Akaya is internationally recognized for elevating the effectiveness of leadership and collaboration in the nonprofit and social benefit sectors. Her vision for our global community includes infusing a sense of purpose, delight and wonder into everything we do. She brings her skills as an organizational consultant and executive coach to her lifetime commitment to working for a fair and equitable society and to Rockwood’s network of 4,000 powerful, collaborative, and interconnected leaders.


Tyson Casey, Fellowship Program Associate

Tyson oversees Rockwood's Leading from the Inside Out Yearlong Fellowship, and supports other fellowship programs. Prior to Rockwood, Tyson was the Managing Director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He is a graduate of the MA program in Social Change at Starr King School for the Ministry, where he focused on education, collaboration, sustainability, and organizational change. He has worked with interfaith and secular justice communities and organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, North Carolina, and Florida.




Virada Chatikul, Fellowship Manager

Virada manages Rockwood's Fellowship for Leaders in Arts and Culture and Death Penalty Abolition Leaders Fellowship. Prior to joining Rockwood, she led various youth and workforce development programs in San Francisco. She also volunteers at the Thai Cultural Center in Berkeley. She holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco and a BA in Sociology from Smith College.





TC Duong, Fellowship Manager

TC Duong manages Rockwood's LGBTQ Advocacy Fellowship, the Fellowship for a New California, and the Fellowship for Upper Midwest Leaders. TC has worked in both the LGBT and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities on policy advocacy related to health disparities, education reform, and community development. Prior to joining Rockwood, TC managed the TAPP INTO organizational capacity building in Minnesota on tobacco control and healthy eating and active living.



Maddie Flood, Special Projects Coordinator

Maddie coordinates special projects and assists with development and communications. Growing up in Santa Cruz, CA, Maddie developed an interest in the influence of politics on individuals' lives and the inequities in wealth and health throughout the world. At the University of San Francisco, she explored these interests by studying politics along with African American and African Studies. After working in direct services at The AIDS Support Organization in Uganda, Maddie went to experience the policy approach to social change in the California Legislature as a Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellow.



Renee Yang Geesler, Training Coordinator

As the Training Coordinator at Rockwood, Renee manages Rockwood's public programs including Art of Leadership, Advanced Art of Leadership and special trainings. Renee has been a media justice organizer and radio producer for the last ten years. Prior to joining Rockwood, she was involved in training women and people of color in broadcast journalism as the Co-Director of the First Voice Apprenticeship Program at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, and the co-founder of KPFA's Asian American Radio show, Apex Express and Full Circle Radio Magazine. She was also a contributing producer for the Peabody-awarded documentary on Asian American history, Crossing East.


Eileen Hazel, Senior Accounting and Operations Manager

Eileen supports the work of Rockwood by providing thorough, accurate management of its accounting and operations functions. Eileen has worked with numerous social change and non-profit organizations including The International Forum on Globalization, The Oakland Institute, East Bay Meditation Center, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Changemakers, and KPFA Radio. She earned her degree in International Relations from the University of Minnesota. Eileen is also a singer-songwriter with two CDs of her original music (www.eileenhazel.com).



Pia Infante, Director of Organizational Partnerships

Pia stewards partnerships that explore transformation at the organizational and systems level, including the BCORR (Building Capacity for Organizational Resilience & Renewal) and Organizational Leadership programs. Pia also supports the strategic oversight of Communications and Network Engagement at Rockwood. For many years prior, Pia's career bridged the non-profit, educational, and philanthropic sectors, which deeply informs her integrative approach as a practitioner.  Pia holds a M.A. in Education from the New School for Social Research, a B.A. in Rhetoric from U.C. Berkeley, and is a certified executive leadership coach.


Kierra Johnson, Program Assistant

Kierra Johnson assists the Program Team with various Fellowships and Trainings. Prior to joining Rockwood, she was a Capacity Building Fellow with LRAM Education Fund, Inc in Atlanta and worked primarily with the Retrofit a Million program. She comes to the Bay Area from Decatur, GA and received her B.A. in Philosophy with a concentration in Environmental and Sustainability Studies from Agnes Scott College.




Stacy Kono, Director of Programmatic Partnerships

Stacy oversees the Fellowships and Trainings. She directs current programs and services as well as new program development. She joined Rockwood after having worked as an organizer with Asian Immigrant Women Advocates for ten years. She is a certified professional coach.


Sharon Price, Senior Fellowship Manager

Sharon's purpose at Rockwood is to support the personal growth and well-being of transformative leaders in order to build a unified progressive movement. She manages several Fellowship programs, including the Cross-Movement Yearlong, special programs with SEIU, and the Fellowship for Human Rights and National Security Reform Leaders. Previously, she worked in international conservation building networks of local environmental leaders. Before that, she studied Religion and Anthropology in Washington, D.C. and Kathmandu, Nepal.



Gayle Roberts, Director of Resource Development

Gayle is a professional fundraising counselor with 25 years of experience in nonprofit management and for-profit business ownership. As a result of her varied background, she brings strong skills in collaborative management, strategic planning, marketing communications and community relations to her work at Rockwood. Gayle delights in bringing people together and believes that at its core, fundraising is about building transformative relationships between people and institutions.


Erik Schnabel, Development Manager

Erik brings over 14 years of fundraising experience, as well as program and organizing experience. Prior to Rockwood, he worked with Asylum Access, LYRIC, Grantmakers Without Borders, and SHARE Foundation in senior development positions. In addition, Erik ran his own fundraising consulting firm for several years, where he primarily supported international grassroots organizations. He has an M.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropology from California Institute of Integral Studies and a B.A. in International Relations from Antioch College. Erik also serves on the Board of Directors of EcoViva and SOUL, and as a volunteer community organizer with Out4Immigration.


Adrienne Torf, Managing Director/COO

Adrienne's purpose at Rockwood is to support the staff's happiness, sustainability and growth by ensuring they have the resources they need to flourish in their work. Her focus is on finance, operations, human resources and information systems, as well as programmatic partnerships.  She draws on 15 years of senior for-profit and nonprofit management experience in technology and social services, a loving community of wise friends, and an education gained at Smith College, Stanford University and The Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. A professional keyboard artist, Adrienne has recorded three solo albums, toured and recorded with numerous women's music vocalists, and engaged in a 19-year writing and performing collaboration with poet and activist June Jordan.