In this last episode of 2024, we are grateful to share the insights of Herb Lee, Jr., the President and CEO of the Pacific American Foundation (PAF). For over thirty years, the PAF Ohana has served community and youth with comprehensive programs and projects including leadership development, career planning and placement, cultural and environmental stewardship, youth mentorship, and project-based learning. As he reflects on the last 31 years serving Kaneohe (and beyond), Herb shares about how restoration of aina (land; that which feeds) can also heal our connections to community, self and spirit. The foundation for him has, and always will be, aloha. Herb credits his friendship with Pono Shim as a valuable touchpoint throughout his life and career and reflects on their many conversations about Hawaii's future.  We discuss the importance of reclaiming a producer mindset as a foundational element for healthy economic development grounded in Hawaiian values. Our OEDB team extends our gratitude to Herb for his manao in helping guide the Oahu Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy with intention and aloha. 

Uncle Herb, we wish you a prosperous retirement!

Episode Highlights

0:23 Introduction

0:51 Waikalua Loko Ia and the Pacific American Foundation

2:02 Friendship with Pono Shim

4:25 The beginnings of a community-focused career 

6:28 Education as critical component in the restoration of Waikalua fishpond; students learning the relevance of their learnings within the context of place

9:36 Pacific American Foundation reflections on the last 30 years: adopting a generational mindset

13:39 Our ancestors are always present

17:24 Optimistic about the future - E Ohana Hou

20:00 Aloha and indigenous wisdom around the world

23:39 What does surrendering during uncertainty look like for you?

26:31 Understanding aloha aina

28:58  Crossroads and finding the way forward

33:15 Education coming full circle: students growing up and contributing to the community

36:12 The producer mindset and culturally-informed economic development

43:35 Envisioning prosperity 

46:27 I ka wa ma mua, i ka wa ma hope: Indigenous knowledge as a balance to technology 

48:07 Retirement - Imua Hou, E Ohana Hou!

In this episode of "Above the Sides," we welcome Camille Rockett who serves as the Director of Community Health and Equity at Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA). As a student of the Aloha Response, Camille shares about her growth in bringing aloha and trust to the forefront of decision-making when it comes to providing health resources to Hawaii residents. Working towards a prosperous Hawaii through the concept of "healthy people, healthy economy"  is clearly reflected in her pursuit of restoring abundance, in all forms, to our communities. Camille shares about her "aha!" moments of learning with her teacher, Pono Shim, as well as her realizations about the ahupuaa model and how applying that framework assists her team in its efforts to connect residents to  resources which can boost their overall well-being through improved social determinants of health. We hope you enjoy this dive into health equity and exploring how practicing aloha uplifts not only ourselves, but those around us. Mahalo for listening in!

Episode Highlights

0:00 Intro

1:10 Bridge-building as the Director of Community Health and Equity Healthcare at HMSA

4:20 How have you developed the skills to navigate difficult conversations?

7:11 How did you end up in your current role at HMSA?

11:35 Blue Zones Project and growing healthy communities

14:06 Health outcomes are related to our surroundings

14:43 Meeting Uncle Pono and exploring Relevance vs. Reverence

18:13 How did your relationship with Uncle Pono grow after you met?

21:15 Have you had any "aha!" moments in your work and with HMSA?

21:49 Leave the bad, keep the good

23:04 The Old Ahupuaa

24:28 Exploring health inequities and increasing access to resources

33:40 Haahaa - building community relationships grounded in trust and care

39:28 How do your "aha!" moments apply to your work within HMSA?

43:29 How do we care for our caregivers?

48:13 What does thriving look like?

49:42 Aloha is self care

55:52 Growing up on Maui, family values

1:01:35 Moving to Oahu to study Social Work

Tyrone Montayre is the President and Founder of Protect and Preserve Hawaii, an environmental nonprofit founded in 2019 to care for Pia Valley, Oahu. In this episode, we hear first-hand from Tyrone what it is like to transition from a full-time mechanic to a  conservationist and entrepreneur and dive deeply into the learning curves of starting a new organization. After his motherʻs passing, he made an unexpected decision to purchase 330 acres of preservation land at a City and County of Honolulu auction. From there his purpose expanded. Tyrone's aloha for Hawaii comes across clearly, not only in his unique path to conservation, but in his creative efforts to engage volunteers and bring much-needed awareness to place-based education, native ecosystem restoration and raising the bar for conservation pay rates. The Protect and Preserve Hawaii team and its enthusiastic volunteers are cultivating a prosperous model in Pia Valley - not only to strengthen relationships between people and ʻāina, but between people and their greater purpose. Mahalo for tuning in!

Episode Highlights

1:01 Entering the conservation world

2:33 Purchasing Pia Valley and connecting with the conservation partners and neighbors

4:28 Nurturing a supportive hui 

5:46 Creating a management plan and launching volunteer programs, meant to be doing this

7:18  Life has changed a lot in the last 6 years

8:14 Where does your love of Hawaii come from? 

9:22 Realizing what we value and embracing it

10:44 What do you think your mother would think of you launching Protect and Preserve Hawaii?

11:11 Growing a volunteer community grounded in gratitude

13:33 Volunteer programs offerings: ecosystem restoration (including invasive removal, native outplanting, guided hikes with botanist), volunteer exchange program, laau lapaau, malama pohaku

15:50 Building a social media movement during the pandemic

19:20 What is the vision for Pia Valley? 

21:38 Awareness vs. caring

22:04 Pia Valley as an economic model of prosperity 

24:41 How have your volunteers been changed by Pia Valley?

26:37 How have you changed?

28:33 Getting comfortable public speaking after changing careers

32:38 What are the challenges for Protect and Preserve Hawaii? 

33:09 Cultivating ecological empathy 

35:10 Engaging volunteers effectively through social media 

38:46 Are you working harder now or when you were a mechanic? 

39:48 Livable wages in conservation, valuing the long term care of Hawaii's natural resources

45:17 Getting creative to secure sustainable funding

47:51 The value of native rainforests 

49:35 Cultivating abundance in Pia Valley through multiple forms of capital, return on investment

50:49 What is your favorite part of your job?

51:35 How do you bring aloha into your life and work? Community, sharing gratitude, humility, being a lifelong student

53:55 Aloha doesn't stop at 5pm

Learn more about Protect and Preserve Hawaii: https://www.protectpreservehi.org/

Todayʻs guest, Taylor "Maeʻole" Quanan, has been on a path of self-discovery through different seasons of her life: from moving to Japan for college to serving as a guardian for her younger sister, embracing motherhood and healing from grief and trauma.  She consistently finds meaning through aloha in practice. Taylor is part of the team at Liliʻuokalani Trust, serving as a Housing Navigator to help Hawaiʻi residents find safe and dignified housing. She met Pono Shim through her time as a Hawaiʻi State Youth Commissioner and from that connection, she now serves on the Oʻahu Economic Development Board. Taylor's wisdom, openness and and innovative spirit shines forward in her words as she works to uplift the Hawaiian lāhui. 

Episode Highlights

0:31 Introduction

1:20 Visiting from Honolulu 

2:57 How did you meet Uncle Pono Shim?

4:19 Addressing Houselessness, Kuleana Academy, Graduating from University of Tsukuba, Caretaking for family 

6:27 Hawaii State Youth Commission

8:54 Meeting Pono Shim

10:38 New approach to storytelling and what it means to be Hawaiian

12:30 "Change We Must" book 

14:23 Growing through grief and loss

22:25 Opportunities to serve, supported by the women of her life

25:27 How did you come to the idea that "growth can come through healing?"

• Questions to self: Could this be seen differently? Could this be endured differently? Who do i have to lean on in there times? Do I have wahi pana or places to go where I can feel something again? How do you rebuild with intention? 

 30:07 Serving the Queenʻs mission through Liliʻuokalani Trust, seeing kanaka in more places of decision-making and healing

35:28 Houselessness: creating a place of belonging, people are our greatest asset

37:27 Envisioning Hawaii at its best

40:59 Reverence in all interactions 

45:33 Going to Japan for university and finding independence

52:43 Favorite TED Talks

55:45 Radical optimism

57:56 Holding stories

In this episode, Ben Treviño shares how the values of aloha have shaped him as a father, partner, son and colleague. He was a close student of Pono Shim, and despite the passing of his friend and mentor, Ben continues to recognize unexpected moments of learning and evolution as they present themselves. He has served in various executive, entrepreneurial and technology roles, leading with creativity and energy. Ben is currently the network coordinator for the Omidyar Fellows program where he cultivates connections to build a stronger, values-based network of Hawaii leaders. In this conversation, Ben shares stories about his  family and career that have shaped and humbled him, including the realization of how E Ohana Hou has unfolded in his own life.  Enjoy listening!

Episode Highlights:

1:02 The Hawaii Leadership Forum and Omidyar Fellows

2:51 Ben's career and what he would tell his younger self

4:16 Parents, family background and love for cinema: "You can do anything"

7:40 Father's Day with his daughter at the movies

8:32 Transformation for Hawaii and self through leadership and stories

10:37 How did you meet Uncle Pono Shim?

15:00 Do you remember your first 1:1 meeting with him?

17:18 How are you weaving in the aloha response to your role?

18:55 Aloha and its impact on deepening his connection to Hawaii

24:41 Are there traditions or experiences from your youth that play into your work today?

27:16 Realizing that software development skills could be of service to the community

30:45 A thriving Hawaii economy, feeling valued and courageous

35:54 Personal economy and basic needs, aina and contributing our hana

40:22 The power of stories for humanity

43:33 Parenthood and examples of aloha

48:13 Did Uncle Pono give you a story?

51:42: What feeds you?

53:46 E Ohana Hou

In this episode we are joined by our friend, business partner and United Fund Advisors Co-Founder, Chris Hasle. For over ten years, Chris and his team have served as consultants to Oahu Economic Development Board and our Community Development Entity (CDE) , Punawai O Puuhonua, which was created in partnership with American Savings Bank. Along the way, he and Pono Shim became close friends, navigating the needs and intricacies of business with aloha and how to uplift those areas that need capital investment the most across our islands. Through that CDE and with Chris' support, we have deployed funding to low income communities throughout Hawaii through the CDFI's New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) program.  Chris is a  founding member of UFA and has worked in the tax credit industry since 2004.  As a principal, he is responsible for driving the overall strategy and direction of the company and serving as a liaison to key stakeholders. Mahalo for tuning in! 

Episode Highlights

• 1:01 About United Fund Advisors
• 2:47 What is the New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) Program?
• 5:09 Education, Values and Impact
• 6:23 Job Searching
• 7:02 NMTCs at OEDB through Punawai O Puuhonua; How did you meet Uncle Pono and begin working with NMTCs in Hawaii?
• 13:50 Continental US and Hawaii partnership
• 14:18 Friendship with Pono
• 15:48 Relational vs. Transactional Partnerships
• 16:58 Aloha as an evolving word
• 18:05 Pono's kidney donation
• 19:24 Punawai o Puuhonua's projects across Hawaii
• 22:22 NMTC and Community Impacts: quality jobs, commercial goods and services, social services - healthcare, education, minority owned businesses and indigenous communities, affordable housing, environmentally sustainable outcomes
• 26:06 Favorite NMTC project: Community Transitional School in Portland, Oregon
• 31:27 NMTC Conference and endless opportunity to uplift communities
• 33:00 The catalytic effect of capital investment
• 33:49 Do you have a dream NMTC project?
• 35:18 After doing business in Hawaii for over ten years, are there things that have left an impression on you and/or changed how you do business?
• 37:22 Friendship stories
• 41:38 Growing a good team
• 44:19 Chris: What does the "Above the Sides" podcast name mean?

Queen Liliuokalani quote: “I could not turn back the time for the political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant, and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs, and without judgment at all. It is a razor’s edge. It is the width of a blade of pili grass. To gain the kingdom of heaven is to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable – that is Aloha. All things in this world are two; in heaven there is but One.” 

Miki Tomita Okamoto is an educator, navigator, storyteller and student herself. Since April 2022, she has also been mindfully setting the foundation of the next chapter of the Aloha Response as Pono Shim's successor after his passing. In this episode, Miki, Roy Kimura and Molly Mamaril have a meaningful conversation that touches upon the many facets of what it means to be a practitioner of aloha in the modern day and how to honor Ponoʻs memory and wishes through the creation of the Mālama Pono Foundation. As many of you know, Miki is the founder and CEO of Education Incubator, a nonprofit that aims to uplift learners across the islands through innovation through aloha to support the dreamers, doers, entrepreneurs, academics, philosophers, voyagers, explorers, teachers and students across Hawaii. 

*The  format of this episode is slightly different than previous ones as the audio was pulled from a video interview with Miki (on camera) and Roy Kimura and Molly Mamaril (off camera). You will hear all three of their voices in an informal, behind-the-scenes  interview. Mahalo for listening.

Conversation Highlights and Timestamps

• 0:00  Introduction to the episode
• 3:15  Who was Pono Shim?
• 5:19  When did you first meet him?
• 8:25  What did you see in him, in those early days?
• 9:38  Was there a recognition of each other when you first met?
• 12:51  When did people begin to seek him out?
• 17:13  How did he know when it was time to share what he had been taught?
• 18:33  Storytelling as medicine; Connection vs. correction
• 22:41  Is there a story about your relationship with him that stays in your mind?
• 30:44  How are you carrying the role of being the student of multiple teachers - including Pono Shim and Nainoa Thompson?
• 35:55  What did he see as his purpose?
• 37:06  Aloha as a key, as a personal practice; Ponoʻs willingness to live his life publicly
• 39:34  What is your favorite Pono story? How he became his dadʻs shadow and learned about changemaking by watching the masters of personal relationships.
• 43:21  Did he ever talk about what Aunty Pilahi Paki saw in him - how she singled him out?
• 45:20  Aloha as a solo practice
• 46:50  When feeling the Two Storms, we must still have aloha for ourselves. Ask, "Can I do this and still have a full heart?"
• 50:37  The Malama Pono Foundation
• 55:49  Growing the community of practice: "I want people to still be able to find him, to know him, and have a personal relationship with Pono Shim and his teachings"
• 58:36  Ponoʻs Audiobook aspirations: "I want them to know him."
• 1:00:20  Practicing self care
• 1:01:55  What didn't we lose when Pono passed away?
• 1:04:20  Aloha economics
• 1:06:25  Aloha in business; What can we hope to accomplish with the Mālama Pono Foundation to challenge the status quo and create positive change?
• 1:15:12   How can we engage the diaspora of residents leaving Hawaii in the aloha practice?
• 1:19:31   What do you miss most about Pono?
• 1:22:49  Was there a favorite meal that you shared together?
• 1:23:40  Why did you create the Foundations of Aloha program?
• 1:32:17  How did Uncle Pono feel about Foundations of Aloha?
• 1:33:25 The Lilikoi Story
• 1:39:42  Miki's childhood on Maui and her early spiritual exploration
• 1:49:27  1976 - A defining year for Pono and Nainoa Thompson
• 1:51:10  Aloha is also a canoe

Resource Links

• Education Incubator and Foundations of Aloha
• Mālama Pono Foundation 
  • The Mālama Pono Foundation will perpetuate and grow Pono Shim’s vision of Hawaiʻi as a unique place of healing and source of the universal spirit of ALOHA for the world. The establishment and launch of the Foundation is led by Miki Tomita, Pono’s mentee, who is facilitating the curation of Pono’s work and other Hawaiʻi wisdom sources into resources for students and practitioners of ALOHA, past, present and future. Donations to support the launch of the foundation and its endeavors are currently being accepted through Education Incubator. Please contact MPF for more information: [email protected].

In this episode, we had the joy of speaking with Heather Pierucki who shares insights from her life, career and experience as a student of Pono Shim. She is a therapist, clinical consultant, and managing partner of ChangeWorks which focuses on supporting agencies that service individuals managing houselessness, mental illness, substance use and poverty. Heather recalls how her initial meeting with Pono Shim like a reconnection, an instinctual knowing of the other. In our hour together, Heather shares stories of the many transitions in her life, from childhood, to choosing a career in therapy, to choosing her partner and moving to Hawaii. She also provides a powerful success story from her previous work with Helping Hands Hawaii which highlights how showing up with love and the right tools can truly help people in need. Mahalo nui for tuning in! 

You can view Sims' and Heather's story from Helping Hands Hawaii here: https://vimeo.com/471520328?share=copy (Roy Kimura, 2017). 

In this episode,  we welcome guest and Oahu Economic Development Board member, Tyler Tokioka, who was a close business confidant to Pono Shim. The Tokioka family has been a steadfast presence in the business community for generations, beginning with Tylerʻs grandfather Masayuki Tokioka, who founded Island Insurance in 1940. Grounded in similar values instilled in them by their families, he and Pono found common ground and a safe space to have meaningful conversations about how to do business with aloha and integrity. We discuss his journey from Hawaii to New York, his return to serve in the family business, economic development hopes for Hawaii and more. Mahalo for listening!

Learn more about the ways that Island Insurance gives back to Hawaii: https://www.islandinsurance.com/community/supporting-our-local-communities/

Roy Kimura leads a meaningful career as a visual storyteller here in Hawaii. In this episode, he talks about his experience working as a director, writer and videographer, highlighting some of the pivotol moments that have influenced his professional path. Roy's stories are rooted in appreciation for the mentors who have contributed to his growth and learning. Most recently, Pono Shim played a key role in shaping his perspective as he experienced first-hand what it was like to be on the receiving end of connection, not correction. This, in turn, encouraged him to make more intentional decisions that prioritize people over task, despite operating in a fast-paced industry. One of the most powerful takeaways from this conversation was his call to action to listeners to record the stories of their loved ones: now is the time. Please see the podcast notes to enjoy the videos that showcase Roy's capacity to create stories that empower and uplift, several of which are mentioned in the episode. Mahalo nui!

Videos by Roy Kimura

• Helping Hands Hawaii 
• Stories of Pono - Robbie Alm - "Start Now"
• Stories of Pono - Robbie Alm - "Watch For The Connection"
• Stories of Pono - Rachel Alm - "Ponoʻs Eulogy"
• Keolamau Yee 
• Stories of Pono - Molly Mamaril - "We Give Attention"
• Hawaiiʻs Food & Farmers - Hawaii Food Bank
• Hawaiiʻs Food & Farmers - Hauula Tomatoes
• Hawaiiʻs Food & Farmers - Sweet Land Farms
• The Wisdom of Hawaiiʻs Elders - Oswald Stender
• The Wisdom of Hawaiiʻs Elders - Eileen Lum