Who We Are

Ahas in other languages: English - surprise,  Hawaiian - ʻaha 1. n. Meeting, assembly, gathering, Irish - áthas means "happiness" or "joy."

AHAS: Archive for Health, Arts & Spirit came together and realized the need for long-term recovery work in Hawaii and the world after the fires in Lahaina in August 2023. AHAS seeks to understand how the arts, health and spirituality can foster resilience and recovery in the face of adversity. Utilizing the arts for healing helps individuals process trauma and promote emotional well-being. Creative outlets like poetry, music, and visual arts connect individuals to the transcendent, providing solace and renewal. Spirituality, beyond traditional religious contexts, shapes responses to crises through practices like meditation, nature exploration, and self-reflection. Despite their acknowledged importance, the combined impact of spirituality and artistic practices on healing during crises remains underexplored. AHAS aims to fill this gap by investigating how these elements work together to enhance recovery, drawing on the concept of social prescription to integrate arts and spirituality into health practices.

Four women smiling outdoors with mountains and trees in the background, wearing colorful tops and floral necklaces.

OUR FOUNDERS

AHAS was co-founded by a collective of artists, educators, and health leaders with a shared vision: to grow systems of care through creativity, culture, and collaboration.

  • Moira Pirsch, PhD

    Co-Founder, Director of Strategic Illumination

    Moira Pirsch supports individuals and organizations who work in arts and culture to develop inspired, participatory, arts-based, and culturally sustaining pedagogical, research and evaluation processes - so that practice can be aligned with the ideals, goals and dreams of project stakeholders. She is a poet, educator and scholar. She is 5th Generation Irish American with roots in the Midwestern United States, currently based in Maui, HI. She has over a decade of experience working with community initiatives on social justice, the arts, and education. She earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University, and her Masters Degree from Harvard University. She continues her research as a Coyle Fellow at the University of Notre Dame's Center for Literacy and as a Research Affiliate at Columbia University's Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME). Her work focuses on the power of the arts to transform, uplift and empower communities. She believes in miracles.

  • Erin Brothers

    Co-Founder, Director of Alchemy and Vision

    Erin Brothers is an artist and nonprofit leader dedicated to fostering community through the arts. Originally from Oʻahu and a graduate of Kahuku High School, she holds a BA in Visual & Media Arts from Emerson College and a Master’s in Social Practice Art from the University of Indianapolis. Erin has led arts organizations across Hawaiʻi, California, and Nevada, serving as Executive Director of Lahaina Arts Association, Programs Manager at Circus Center San Francisco, Director of Impact at the Reno Generator, and Grants Manager at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Currently Erin resides in Hilo, Hawaii, as the Executive Director of East Hawaii Cultural Center and the Engage Program Manager at Prince Dance Company. With a passion for arts access and community engagement, Erin continues to champion the role of the arts in social impact and cultural resilience.

  • Hōkū Pavao

    Co-Founder, Harbinger of Hidden Narratives

    Hōkū Pavao is a Kanaka Maoli performing artist, teaching artist, arts administrator, and co-founder of AHAS: Archive for Health, Arts & Spirit, a nonprofit born out of the Lahaina wildfires to support long-term recovery through the arts. With over 13 years of experience in nonprofit arts education and a mentorship as Assistant Artistic Director under David C. Johnston, she is dedicated to using theatre as a tool for storytelling, healing, and social change. A graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, Hōkū returned home to uplift Maui’s diverse voices and preserve its cultural narratives. Hōkū now develops and leads trauma-informed arts initiatives with AHAS, using the arts to foster resilience, cultural preservation, and collective healing. She collaborates with artists, educators, cultural practitioners, community leaders, and government entities to develop sustainable, arts-based resilience programs. Rooted in the belief that the arts are essential to individual and collective well-being, she continues to advocate for their role in long-term recovery and cultural preservation across Maui and beyond.

  • Anna Pirsch, PhD, PMHRN-BC

    Co-Founder, Steward of Healing Collaborations and Purposeful Discovery

    Anna Pirsch is a public health nurse, community organizer, and researcher who completed her PhD in nursing from the University of Minnesota, focusing her dissertation on critical consciousness in public health nurses. Her practice specialty includes public health nursing and psychiatric/mental health. She currently holds an academic appointment in Nursing at the University of Augsburg in Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Pirsch has extensive experience as a psychiatric nurse in Hawaii, NYC, and Minneapolis. She also served as a public health nurse for the Nurse Family Partnership, where she focused on supporting mothers and babies in transitional housing for three years. Her research and practice are dedicated to fostering critical consciousness among social service workers, enhancing their understanding of the sociopolitical realities of their work to improve social determinants of health across sectors.

  • Christopher Kaui Morgan

    President, Board of Directors

    Artistic & Executive Director, Christopher K Morgan & Artists/ Artistic Director, Malashock Dance / Program Director, Art Omi: Dance /

    Christopher Kaui Morgan (he/him) is a choreographer, performer, educator, facilitator, curator, and arts administrator whose Native Hawaiian ancestry and wide-ranging international performance career influence all aspects of his work.

    Known as a thoughtful advocate for cultural integrity, inclusivity, and diverse representation in the studio and on stage, Christopher was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden and confirmed by Congress on March 15, 2022 to be a member of the National Council on the Arts. Christopher serves on the board of the National Performance Network, Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ Equitable Partnership Working Group, and Western Arts Alliance's Advancing Indigenous Performance Committee. He lives in San Diego with his husband, opera director Kyle Lang.

  • Joan Osato

    Treasurer, Board of Directors

    Director of Narrative Change & Field Building at Youth Speaks

    Joan has played a pivotal role in local and national theater for over two decades and is a committed local and national community organizer. A core member of Youth Speaks since 2001 where she produces live performance events including Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival annually in rotating cities around the country, she is also a Producer for The Living Word Project and the critically acclaimed theater group Campo Santo. As a cultural organizer - she works on behalf of national networks and sits on the boards of the National Performance Network, and the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists.

    She is an awardee of prestigious grants from the MAP Fund, the Wattis Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and the Creative Work Fund. She was the inaugural recipient of SFAC’s Artist and Communities Partnership Grant, Theater Bay Area Award for Excellence in Video Design (Tribes by Nina Raine, at Berkeley Rep) and the Surdna Foundation’s Artists Engaged in Social Change Award. She has been recognized for her work as a photographer from Artslant, Prix de Photographie, Laguna Arte Prize and has exhibited throughout the San Francisco Bay Area since 2009. In 2019 she received Cal Shakes Luminary Award for Community Engagement, and was named a recipient of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, YBCA 100.

  • Jean E. Taylor

    Secretary, Board of Directors

    Director, Teaching Artistry Program
    Lincoln Center Education / Asst Professor, New School College of Performing Arts

    Jean has been a teaching artist for Lincoln Center for over 25 years, working extensively with LCE’s teaching artist faculty, the Teaching Artist Development Labs and international consultancies. Jean is a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Directors Emeriti Award, and represented LCE at the International Teaching Artist Conferences (ITAC) in Oslo, Brisbane, Edinburgh, New York City, Seoul, and again in Oslo in 2022. LCE, along with the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, are the US Hub for ITAC joining a global network for change. Jean and teaching artist, Heather Bryce, co-facilitated a presentation on Lincoln Center’s Big Umbrella Festival at the ITAC6 Conference in Oslo in 2022, which led to the creation of the Global Working Group on Accessibility. The Big Umbrella events offer multi-sensory experiences, performances, installations, and workshops specifically welcoming neurodivergent audiences and their families to the campus.

    Jean teaches Theatrical Clown and Accepting the Ridiculous for The New School College of Performing Arts BFA and MFA programs and teaches Theatrical Clown/A Level of Theatre for The Barrow Group’s Actor Training program. As a performer, Jean is developing a series of clownesque pieces entitled Great Small Moments and has a dream of using her vintage tractor for Movable Stories along a country road.