Gina McGuire is a Native Hawaiian-Polish woman, born and raised in Puna on Hawaiʻi Island. She recently earned her PhD at University of Hawaiʻi in Geography & Environment where she focused on the coastal wellbeing of Kalapana, Hawaiʻi Island interviewing elders and completing coastal vegetation surveys. She holds a master’s degree in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science from University of Hawaiʻi Hilo where she worked to gather perspectives on the visitor’s program at Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll) in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. She is passionate about telling stories of place and community by sitting with kūpuna and reading through historic texts and moʻolelo. She is a student of lāʻau lapaʻau, Hawaiian medicine, under Kumu Keoki Kīkaha Pai Baclayon and of lauhala weaving.