(Caption: A last look at the room we’re leaving as we complete our organization reduction.   //  Photo credit: A. Yamashiro)

For the past four months, the work of our Board and Staff has been full of fear, anger, grief, and loss. We have been tasked with the impossible work of taking the organization we love apart. These are the consequences of the DOGE attack on our 54-year partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, and their sudden termination of 90% of our operating funds.

We are hurt and exhausted. We will continue, because of your support. Thank you for holding us. Thank you for fighting back. Thank you for showing us what it means to take care of each other when we fall, and help each other transform and endure.

Please join me in witnessing and honoring some incredible programs and people.

Aiko Yamashiro

Executive Director

Programs we cannot continue:

Community Grants. Through our trusted partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, HCH has been distributing federal funds locally through community grants for 54 years, supporting generations of work across culture, history, philosophy, religion, policy, health, and social services. Grants terminated by DOGE included $300,000 earmarked to support Maui wildfires community recovery and rebuilding through the public humanities. The latest Presidential budget draft allotted just enough to the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts to close down those agencies. We cannot make grants available in the near future under such unstable federal funding conditions. We need all our voices to continue to advocate that the humanities and arts are essential to a healthy connected society, and the federal government is an important resource to support this work.

Try Think has touched hundreds of lives through the healing and connecting power of humanities-based, facilitated conversation. Through the skill, experience, and compassion of facilitators Tammy Jones and Brandy Chang, and program director Rob Chang, Try Think has built authentic community in a place known for dehumanization—our correctional facilities—and broken down barriers between Inside and Outside through our community guest program. Projects terminated by DOGE included $40,000 of a United We Stand initiative that would have helped fund Try Think. Though HCH has been deprived of the resources to support this program past July, Rob, Tammy, and Brandy are exploring ways to continue Try Think as an independent project. To stay in touch with future developments or support their work, contact Rob at trythinkhawaii@gmail.com.

Film for Thought. Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities was one of the initial sponsors of the Hawai‘i International Film Festival, in 1981 when the East-West Center held their inaugural event “When Strangers Meet,” showing 7 films from 6 different countries. From an audience of 5,000, HIFF has grown to an audience of over 50,000, and is now one of the premiere film festivals in the Pacific. HCH has partnered with HIFF consistently over the years to support the power of film to connect to experiences far away from our own, and explore deep and challenging societal topics. Film for Thought was the latest iteration of our partnership, a program where humanities scholars and students helped us engage with provocative films on war, identity, political division, colonization, and more, and host discussions throughout our islands. Though we cannot maintain staffing to support this program’s continuation, we will continue to champion the meaningful work of HIFF and other humanities organizations in Hawai‘i.

Nā Mana Wai evolved from the growing desire across the state for the healing and connection of poetry, local poets, and facilitated conversation of the Hawaiʻi State Poet Laureate program. Our vision was to expand local capacity, amplify local voices, and resource arts and the humanities within underserved and rural communities in 2025, our pilot year. We have had to dramatically shorten our timeframe and step down our capacity. We are currently working with a community of artists and practitioners to create events and resources that can continue to build in these directions with a broader collaborative base.

Our gratitude to these seven amazing team members. It has been our privilege and blessing to work with them, and we know they will continue to do amazing things for and with our community.

Staff:

Rob Chang, Deputy Director and Director of Try Think

Rob started with the council in 1999, as a college graduate of Hawaiian Studies, eager to try new things, and do positive work with the community. He was hired as a coordinator of Motherread, a national “parenting” program, where he learned how to hold group discussions that explored big life issues based in children’s literature. Over his 26 years of service, Rob has helped the council grow and stretch in major ways—helping pilot our work in the correctional facilities, conducting humanities initiatives with medical professionals and veterans, and being a steady staff support for Hawai‘i History Day. In 2018, Rob, Tammy, and Brandy began co-creating Try Think, a program lauded in O‘ahu facilities and nationally. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rob became our Deputy Director, working hard to stabilize the council and support connection through crisis. He helped to organize the NEH Chair visit to Hawaiʻi in 2024, held a leadership role in the formation of the Pacific Islands Humanities Network, and took on additional responsibilities with Hawaiʻi History Day fairs and national trip planning. Born and raised on Kaua‘i, Rob always brought his values of humility, groundedness, and resourcefulness, and challenged us to broaden ourselves by asking, “Who is not in the room? How can we welcome them in?” Rob has dedicated his life to the profound human-to-human work of the public humanities in Hawai‘i.

Stacy Hoshino, Director of Community Grants

Stacy started with the council in 2011, at a time when the organization was seeking a new team member with expertise and vision for the public humanities sector. With his graduate studies and background in arts, visual culture, and art history, and formative time in New York City and working in the local arts scene, Stacy brought strategy, creativity, and passion to his role as Director of Grants and Special Projects, later changed to Director of Community Grants. He brought community experts together to create programs and workshops for the HCH-NEH partnership initiative Humanities and the Legacy of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, histories of food and music, and land use and development that are still remembered today. He headed our major pandemic grants initiatives, helping us distribute $1,103,307 in COVID-19 relief and recovery funds. From leadership roles in various organizations to humble backstage work, it is no exaggeration to say that Stacy has helped to shape the field of public humanities locally and nationally. His advocacy across our humanities networks and with NEH led to our council hosting the National Humanities Conference in Hawai‘i in 2019, the first and only time this annual gathering was held outside the continent. Generous with his time, dedication, and fun spirit, Stacy is trusted and beloved among our museum, archive, artistic, cultural heritage and grantmaking community. He is famous for going above and beyond in his care for each organization he worked with, and would often spend hours on the phone helping and encouraging applicants and grantees, with his signature question: “What’s your most crazy idea? Let’s see if we can make it happen!” Mahalo, Stacy, for helping to make hundreds of wonderful, crazy ideas come to life across our islands.

Lyz Soto, Director of Literary and Conversation Programs

Lyz started with the council in 2019 as our Director of Communications, bringing experience with museum work, performance and creative writing, teaching at the university and in the community, and as a leader and mentor in the Hawai‘i and Pacific spoken word poetry community. Lyz has helped us through huge communications projects—creating a new website in 2019 (replete with her beautiful artwork) and re-creating our organization in the vibrant virtual world during the pandemic. Her expertise and longstanding relationships in the literary community helped us envision the Hawai‘i State Poet Laureate program, and her dedication to this community has made the program a success. Lyz has created resources like the Why It Matters Poetry and Civic Engagement collection, worked with community elders and storytellers statewide on our Now is the Time for Stories series, curated Film for Thought resources, and more. Her wisdom: you cannot create programs for people, you need to create programs with people. Embrace the time that requires! Lyz is cherished for her deep attention, big laugh, generosity as a baker and artist, and faith in our ability to imagine new and better worlds.

Camille Wong, Office Manager

Camille joined in December 2024, with the goal of trying work in the nonprofit sector and contributing to a community mission she believed in. Extremely organized and creative, Camille quickly picked up the basics and began to implement improvements in our operating procedures. She also took the time outside of her work schedule to participate in all of our programs—judging and helping pass out pizza at Hawaiʻi History Day, joining Try Think conversations, and attending other program events. The biggest challenge Camille faced was having to lead our sudden office downsize after DOGE. Through her determination and quiet strength, Camille turned a dreaded event into something we could get through together. Her wisdom: “Keep at it, gently.” She enabled us to carefully preserve our archives and important documents, and donate and gift a sizable amount of books, office supplies, and furniture to other individuals, nonprofits, and schools. Throughout our time of grief, Camille shared her special gifts with us, creating artwork like the Let’s Protect the Humanities in Hawai‘i zine. Camille, thank you for helping us reconnect to our power to create beauty and remember what is truly important.

Cassandra Chee, Communications Director

Cassie joined our team in January 2025, sharing with us her experiences in ministry, social justice and community health advocacy, and art and design. She jumped in fully to our vigorous season of Hawai‘i History Day District Fairs on five islands—as a judge, as visual director, and as publicity manager for local news. Cassie’s warm and grounded energy encouraged our youth and judges to share their own “why” for this program on recorded phone videos and postcard testimony. She participated avidly in Try Think, and constantly sought ways for the men and women inside to also share their stories in ways respectful and honoring to these individuals. She supported our growth and courage with her refrain: “Let’s try!” When the DOGE news hit, Cassie pivoted her work to a fast-paced advocacy campaign, generating hundreds of testimonies from program participants to share with our lawmakers. In our downsize, she led the work to inventory our precious 50-year archive, and birthed Archive ‘Auwai as a heartfelt way to reconnect history with the present. Cassie’s communication values are based in reciprocity, truth, and relationship. Thank you, Cassie, for centering us and opening a powerful flow of community voices to inspire and carry us into the future.

Contractors:

Tammy Jones joined us as the Reading & Discussion Program Assistant in 2017. Her PhD in Curriculum Studies and experience teaching in both public and charter schools on Oʻahu helped to create a deep foundation for the the design and launch of Try Think in the correctional facilities in 2018. As a Co-Facilitator with Rob at the Hālawa Correctional Facility, Tammy has brought music, poetry, comedy, film, art, and more into the circle. She creates a safe space for us to show up in our honesty and contradictions, “Jersey Girl” strength and vulnerability—as ourselves.

Brandy Chang has been a Try Think facilitator at the Women’s Community Correctional Center since 2019. She is a believer in humanity, a practicer of inclusivity, and an advocate for making education accessible for everyone. Her superpowers include being a public high school teacher, Micronesian Club advisor, and full-time mom. Anyone who has sat in one of Brandy’s circles has benefited from the healing strength of her wisdom, humor, and compassion.

Both Tammy and Brandy are true teachers and mentors in every sense of the word. They delight in supporting other people in their own journeys. They help us believe in ourselves and cultivate our unique gifts. They challenge us to be brave, self-reflective, to listen, and to share. Thank you, Tammy and Brandy, for building hundreds of circles of trust and care in our community.