Joanne Qinaʻau, PhD, MA, E-YT750

Founder & Director

Pilina Center for Wellbeing

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Jo was born and raised in on O?ahu, nourished by the waters of ‘Ewa Beach and the mountains of Wa?ahila. Jo uses research, clinical practice, and ?ike kupuna to illuminate paths of mauli ola leading to collective liberation/ea. They are an NIH-funded T32 research fellow at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health where they are developing 1) a mindfulness program to reduce bias and support equity; and 2) an intervention based on the multi-eyed seeing approach, integrating Kanaka ?Oiwi conceptualizations of mauli ola with Eastern and Western approaches to healing and empowerment. Engaging in research as ritual, they dedicated their recent dissertation in clinical psychology at UHM to kupuna, focusing on transformative approaches to decolonial and indigenized wellbeing measurement (Kukui Malamalama) and theory for Kanaka ?Oiwi with behavioral health challenges (Ke Ao Noweo 'Ula, KANU). Jo has published on wellbeing, settler colonial stress, traumatic stress, emotion regulation, dissociation, cultural adaptations to ACT, and bias in the DSM. They are an integrative clinical psychologist (licensure pending) with specialized training in the treatment of trauma and serious mental illness (Harvard Medical School). Jo currently provides holistic therapeutic services to folx affected by the Maui fires with the multi-eyed seeing group, Hui Ho?omalu. Prior to pursuing their PhD at UH Manoa and MA in Psychology in Education (clinical psychology) at Teachers College, Columbia University, Jo was co-owner of a cooperative community health center in Brooklyn (Third Root) and worked in education research, evaluation, and training with a focus on culturally sustaining approaches for Kanaka ?Oiwi upon return home to Hawai'i. Through the Pilina Center for Wellbeing, Jo applies 18 years of mind-body-spirit intervention facilitation to wellbeing programming for communities and orgs.