Hawi Awash

Hawi Awash
Co-founder & Creative Director, YEMA

Hawi Awash was born in Ethiopia and spent her early years between Kenya and Minnesota before her family settled permanently in the United States. Moving between countries, languages, and cultures shaped a person who would spend her life building bridges — between continents, between traditions, between a designer's vision and its cultural roots.

She studied Biomedical Sciences and Humanities at Dominican University of California, with a minor in Public Health and Math. Her commitment was to impact — to healthcare, to community, to opened doors. It was at Dominican that she met Yema Khalif, first crossing paths during her freshman year and his junior year. Their connection deepened through shared advocacy work. They married in 2017.

YEMA grew from that union. Where Yema dreams the designs, Hawi translates them. She speaks Amharic and Swahili and has returned to Ethiopia nearly every year since graduating in 2017. That living connection to East African culture is what grounds every YEMA piece in authentic meaning. When Yema showed her an angel motif he had dreamed, Hawi recognized it immediately as a 17th-century Abyssinian symbol of love, peace, victory, and prosperity. The spiritual connection happens without communication. He dreams. She translates.

As Creative Director, Hawi shapes how YEMA shows up in the world — campaigns, photoshoots, the visual language of the brand across every channel. She brings inward depth to Yema's outward exuberance.

The brand's defining early moment came in 2017: a 72-hour drive from California to Chicago for a three-day trade show, on a budget that covered only the booth and a hotel room. Hawi was in the final stretch of college exams and made the trip anyway. Three days at the booth together. It was their proof of concept — creatively, personally, and as partners.

Today Hawi and Yema operate YEMA from the flagship store in Tiburon, California. In 2022, they established the HAWI & YEMA Foundation, directing 20% of all YEMA proceeds to education for orphaned children in Ethiopia and Kenya. More than 400 students supported. Two schools built.

Her philosophy: Tenda wema, nenda zako — do good, be on your way.

"Without you," Hawi says, "the masterpiece isn't complete."