by Vanessa Moss, SDRC Staff
Cory Adams joined Southern Dharma Retreat Center as Executive Director on October 1, 2026. Having lived in Asheville since 1997, Cory steps into her role at Southern Dharma with over eighteen years experience in strategic planning and organizational development. She joins us from OpenDoors of Asheville as their College & STEAM Director, working to close race-based opportunity and achievement gaps through education. Before OpenDoors, she led Asheville’s nonprofit Odyssey School as Executive Director for eight years, nearly doubling their student base and annual budget during her tenure.
Hear more about her background, inspirations, and skillsets in her conversation below with Vanessa Moss, SDRC's Communications Coordinator.
VM: What about Southern Dharma Retreat Center inspired you to apply for this position?
CA: My spiritual commitments lie at the heart of my life–they are the seed around which everything else is layered, so when I saw the ad for the position at Southern Dharma, I was curious to find out if this role might be a path toward aligning my work and my practice at a deeper level.
VM: During your first month as SDRC’s executive director, have there been any events or experiences that particularly stood out to you?
CA: It’s been a pretty busy few weeks just getting started at the Center. We’ve had the fall Board retreat, which was a great opportunity to meet almost all of the Board in person and start to build a plan for what comes next for the center. I’ve had some good time with staff as well, and that is nourishing too–it’s settling to see the day-to-day necessities of running Southern Dharma and the impact the staff make on our retreatants’ experiences.
VM: You got to meet one of our founders, Elizabeth Kent, a few weeks ago at our Community Picnic. What was that experience like?
CA: I was very blessed to spend some time talking one-on-one with Elizabeth Kent at our community picnic, and she shared some powerful words about her intentions in creating Southern Dharma. One thing that she shared was the experience of being guided by a deep feeling for silent meditation. She did not know what she was doing or why she was doing it when she started meditating, but she kept showing up. And ultimately her commitment to that practice and process led her to create something that has endured for more than forty-five years–that is a powerful statement to the impact that one deeply committed human can make.
VM: Share with us about your past work in nonprofits and how you think it translates to this new role at SDRC.
CA: I worked for many years as the Executive Director of Odyssey School, an independent school founded on Ken Wilber’s model of the evolution of human consciousness, and I developed into that job through working with the founder, John Johnson, who taught me a lot about slowing down, being more aware, and attending to the seed of truth that each community member brings forth into the shared field of awareness.
One of the core focuses of our work at Odyssey was in developing meta-cognition in children through centering exercises–in essence, meditation. And we worked to support students in finding different kinds of tools to help them connect inward–to help them build a compass with which they could learn to explore the world around them. Southern Dharma is a space that is fully dedicated to the adult quest inward, and I love that about it. There’s something so grounded about asking people to take time out, turn toward themselves, inquire into their own illusions, crazy thoughts, emotions, and experience. To me, the most practical thing a human can do in this life is to orient to what is most important.
VM: Tell us a bit about your own personal practice. How did you find it, and what have you learned from it?
CA: As a follower of Meher Baba, I have meditated for many years in my own spiritual tradition. In raising two kids and running a school, and later doing equity work, that practice has been honed to be responsive to the needs of each day. I pray every morning, some rote prayers, some spontaneous. I do sun salutations to move my body. Most recently, I have incorporated walking as a daily practice–this helps me to get into my tissues at a cellular level and for me personally is part of the work I do to stay in touch with what is present in the moment.
VM: Why do you believe in the value of contemplative practice?
CA: As an administrator, I have learned–I was taught–to slow down, reflect, listen, and be with whatever is coming into awareness before responding. My mentor once told me that he believed that 98% of the issues that arise in an organizational framework can be responded to with this kind of process.
On a deeper level, my experience is that contemplative practice works like cutting a path in the forest (wilds) of the mind and spirit. At its best, practice provides a way to build relationship with the ineffable.
VM: How are JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) principles core to SDRC’s work and mission? How do you hope to support this commitment as ED?
CA: Making Southern Dharma as accessible as possible is essential to the Center reaching its mission. It has been part of my lifelong work in different roles to become aware of barriers different populations and people face and to explore what can be done to eliminate those barriers. My last role was primarily working with Black communities in Asheville to find access to high quality education. That work taught me a lot about how important it is for children, and really all people, to see themselves represented among leadership at all levels–a lesson I carry forward to this new role.
VM: If SDRC was given $1 Million dollars, what would you do with it?
CA: If SDRC was given a million dollars, I would ensure the money was invested and saved so that the Board could begin the process of deciding a strategic vision for the new evolution of the organization’s growth over the next ten years. My primary goal is to shepherd the beauty, sanctity, and magic of Southern Dharma forward so that many generations of people can return to share this silence and practice together.
VM: What are some of your other passions in life, outside of your practice and nonprofit work?
CA: My family is a place of deep devotion for me. I am thankful for the teachers in my close family circle who have shown up to give me the hardest and best lessons. Past that, I am an award-winning self-published author of a debut fantasy novel–I grew up writing and reading fantasy, sci fi, and fell in love (pun intended) with romance as an adult. I love genre fiction for many reasons, including the way it encourages people from all backgrounds to write their own stories. I could talk a lot about why I think romance is one of the most subversive and necessary genres in fiction, especially in the current cultural landscape. Writing, for me, is another core joyful and disciplined practice.
