Uʻilani Macabio was born and raised in Kalaoa Hilo, and has genealogical ties to Miloliʻi and Honolulu Landing on the Island of Hawaiʻi. She just recently graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo with her BA in Anthropology and minor in Hawaiian Studies. She was one of the interns with the Pacific Internships for Exploring Science (PIPES) program, in the first cohort of Hawaiian cultural resource management. After completing the program, U‘i interned with the State Historic Preservation Division and has been a field technician on various cultural resource management projects on the Island of Hawaiʻi. She values Hawaiian knowledge, language, and culture, and her research focuses on community outreach, with the integration of ancestral knowledge.