Meet the New AHA Staff Member: Jake Via
Please welcome the AHA’s new Organizing Director, Jake Via!
What is your educational and work background?
For nearly two decades, my work in nonprofit organizations has centered on youth development, community building, and philanthropy. From Austin to Seattle, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, and even Guam, play-based programming was always a big focus. It brings people together and fosters deep connection. Time at the YMCA and Playworks reinforced a deep belief that play builds empathy, strengthens relationships, and helps people process both joy and pain.
A nontraditional route later in life led to earning a BS in Business Administration from Thomas Edison State University, achieved entirely through testing out of coursework. No classes, no GPA, just a self-directed, neurodivergent mind hacking the system in a way that worked for my learning style.
Six years ago, a motorcycle accident resulted in a brain injury and the need to relearn how to walk. That recovery journey led to a transition into tech sales, where success came but fulfillment didn’t. The recent political climate made it impossible to ignore the internal pull back toward nonprofit work. I felt a deep desire to be doing something that actually aligns with my personal values and the kind of world worth working toward. When the Organizing Director role at AHA popped up, it was like spotting a lighthouse in a storm. Joining this historic organization, serving the humanist mission and community, and walking in the footsteps of so many incredible humanists? Couldn’t be more humbled and excited!
How did you first learn about humanism?
Like so many who identify as humanists, I grew up in a very conservative Christian environment with a young-earth education. By the time I entered high school, I had entire chapters, even a full book, of the Bible memorized. Homeschooled and immersed in church life, I had already gone on international mission trips, my family worked at a Christian summer camp year-round, and I spent up to six days a week at church as a volunteer, custodian, youth group member and leader, A/V tech—you name it. My whole world existed within this bubble, and I was fully committed. Preaching at homeless shelters and youth groups, leading Bible studies, writing and performing Christian theater productions, and spending summers as a camp staffer all felt like a calling.
And then, my bubble popped. Traveling solo—backpacking through Brazil, teaching outdoor education in the Rockies, lifeguarding in Guam, working in secular roles—I met people from all walks of life. People my religion told me were destined to suffer for eternity simply because they didn’t share my beliefs.
Around this time, I also had a realization: the only reason I believed what I did was because my parents, grandparents, and generations before them had believed it. Faith built on the luck of birth felt like a weak testimony. So, I stepped away—not to reject it outright, but to see it more clearly, to test whether it truly held up. That journey of seeking, combined with the knowledge I had from preparing to be a missionary, having read through the Bible as well as other major religious texts like the Quran, Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, and more. It led me somewhere unexpected.
Instead of deepening my relationship with a deity, I found evolution, science, and reason. Through comparing religions, I saw the desperation of ancient truth-seekers grasping to explain the cosmos through the only tools available to them: storytelling. Searching for meaning, I tried on various replacements, including Daoism, until I came across humanism about fifteen years ago. As soon as I discovered it, everything clicked.
Humanism reflected who I already was. I am rational, reasonable, and deeply committed to living an empathetic life. It allowed me to embody the values I was raised with, without the myths and guilt that came with them. We share this pale blue dot under the most random and miraculous set of circumstances. Each of us has a responsibility to leave it better than we found it.
Did you grow up in a traditional religious faith? How did it impact you?
I’m always grateful for the community I was raised in and the values it instilled. Kindness, helping those in need, and coming together through volunteering and altruism have all stayed with me. Unfortunately, so did the guilt. The belief that I’d never be good enough, that some are chosen while others are unworthy, and that an eternity of torment awaited those who failed to follow the rules had a deep impact. These ideas shaped my development as a rational thinker and remain a daily struggle. Telling a child they are a worthless sinner over and over leaves scars, creating decades of emotional baggage that don’t just fade away.
Humanism offers a much kinder, and I believe better, vision of the world, one where every life deserves dignity, respect, and love, not as something to be earned but as something inherent. There is no need to chase acceptance because we are worthy as we are. Existence itself is extraordinary. The sheer randomness of the universe led to this breath, this moment. For that, I am grateful. Helping others feel whole, loved, and accepted isn’t just important; it is necessary.
What interested you most about working for the American Humanist Association?
We live in a confusing and often unreasonable world. Billions of people were raised in irrational religions, taught not to question the myths presented as truth. Humanism, and the American Humanist Association, stands as a beacon of hope—not just for those with backgrounds like mine, but for anyone who sees the world through a rational lens and wants to be a force for good, empathy, and love.
Humanism helped me frame the values I always knew I had in a way that is rational, reasonable, and rooted in science. The work we do leads others toward a more fulfilling existence, and being part of that mission makes me almost irrationally excited.
What book has influenced you the most?
I’ve always been a voracious reader and was even more so as a kid. Thanks to the BOOK IT! program, I ate way too many Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas while devouring books. I loved escaping into Narnia and Middle-earth, but things really got good when I first read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
My love for Mark Twain’s travel books eventually brought me to Letters from Earth and Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, two of his works that deserve far more attention than they’ve received. Looking back, it’s clear that Twain’s irreverence and Adams’ unique perspective on the universe, along with his interwoven humanism, played a huge role in shaping how I view religion and the world at large.
If you could have dinner with any three people in the world (living or dead), who would they be and why?
No contest or question here: Mark Twain, Douglas Adams, and Stephen Fry.