About Norma

Norma Wong is an instructor with the Institute of Zen Studies. The Applied-Zen program offers workshops and training for people who are interested in the application of Zen principles and spiritual training in their work and life. She is also a private consultant specializing in strategic planning and organizational capacity.

Ms. Wong’s career spanned service as a State legislator, a partner in a policy research and planning firm, eight years in the Hawaii Office of the Governor, and three years as a corporate and government relations director in the Hawaii office of a Washington D.C. based law firm. She had specialties in strategy and native Hawaiian issues. Ms. Wong is a 1974 graduate of The Kamehameha Schools and attended but did not graduate from the University of Hawaii and Wellesley College. In 2000, she was ordained a Zen priest after having been a student of the late Tenshin Tanouye Rotaishi for twenty years.  She received her inka shomei (Mind Stamp) in 2005, as an 86th generation Zen Master of Chozen-ji.