Growing a Stronger Organization

Introducing New Team Members ...
(January 2025) – We’re excited about a new season of growth here at HIR. We’re growing stronger as an organization through new leadership pathways, new investments and relationships, and new team members!
When HIR launched in 2014, we started with a lean (but impactful) team and a working Board of Directors actively involved in program delivery. Over the last decade, we have strategically expanded our team in pace with our funding and management capacity and our core team has grown from 1 to 14!
Most recently, we’ve added staff key additions aimed at building our capacity around organizational admin, narrative shifting, investment analysis, and the direct support services needed to empower our networks and community entrepreneurs to drive long-term systemic change in Hawaiʻi’s food system.
Mahalo to all of you who have been a part of this tremendous growth!
Please join us in welcoming our newest HIR team members:
- Kim Moa, Narrative Change Director: Kim joined the HIR team in June 2024. As a documentary photographer and strategic communications professional, she brings 25 years of experience in visual media to her new role as our Narrative Change Director. Her work in the nonprofit sector has focused on storytelling that uplifts and empowers the voices of those most impacted in our community. In addition to managing marketing and communications strategy for HIR, Kim will lead the development and deployment of Narrative (story-based) Shifting strategies that will enable HIR to move key audiences to a greater understanding of the issues and solutions that impact our island economy. Prior to HIR, Kim spent nearly a decade documenting grassroots mālama ʻāina efforts across the paeʻāina with Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo (KUA), serving 6 years as their Communications Coordinator. Most recently she served as the Communications Director at the ACLU of Hawaiʻi.
- Tyler Takahashi, Investment Analyst: Tyler joined the team in July 2024 as our new Investment Analyst. A graduate of Punahou School and Cornell University, where he studied Finance, Tyler previously interned for HIR, supporting social enterprises with strategic planning. He is excited to continue working with folks committed to aligning economic sustainability with aloha ‘aina sensibilities. His professional journey extends to roles at GE Vernova and American Savings Bank, where he developed his financial analysis skills.
- Kaile Luga, Community Pilina & Consultancy Associate: Kaile has worked in the nonprofit space since 2018, focusing on cultural and natural resource management and supporting Native Hawaiian communities. In her new position as Community Pilina & Consultancy Associate, she provides direct support to change-making, systems-moving, and movement-minded community enterprises and organizations. She is passionate about creating spaces where people feel supported, heard, and empowered to drive their own solutions and is committed to strengthening relationships and uplifting the work of those making a difference in Hawaiʻi. Kaile is the former Board President of Ka Ipu Makani Cultural Heritage Center and a current Board Member for Nawaipuna.
Read their full team bios HERE.
Welina mai kākou!


Interested in learning more about our growth over the last decade? We invite you to is a resource from Common Future we’ve found helpful in preparing for this journey: Consensus, Collaboration, and Trust: A Multi-racial Co-led Organization’s Guide to Sharing Power
Want to support HIR’s vision of a just, abundant, place-based island economy in which all people, families and communities of Hawai’i thrive? We’d love to talk story!
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