Wendy Egyoku Nakao Rōshi is the abbot emeritus and head teacher of the Zen Center of Los Angeles.

According to James Ishmael Ford, "Under her leadership, the center expanded its mission to be family-friendly and socially active, creating an important experiment in the development of Western Zen."

Nakao also conferred Dharma transmission to the first ever African-American woman, Merle Kodo Boyd.

[1][2][3] In May 2019 Egyoku Nakao stepped down as abbot, but remains its head teacher, to devote herself to further developing ZCLA's teaching curriculum.

She at that time installed Deborah Faith-Mind Thoresen as the ZCLA's fourth abbot.