Founding Team

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Beatriz Talerico  joins the team to assist with the festival’s planning and operations, helping ensure a smooth and impactful experience for filmmakers and attendees. 

Beatriz is a screenwriter and currently attends the Los Angeles Film School, where she is pursuing a degree in Writing for Film and Television. She earned a Master’s in Education for Teaching Biology from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor’s in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of South Florida. 

An avid outdoorswoman, she spends her free time hiking, paddleboarding, and running with her Australian Shepherd under the Hawai‘i sun. She is a retired U.S. Naval officer.

ʻImiloa Borland was  co-founder of the Honolulu Chapter "March for Our Lives" to stop school gun violence when she was 15.  She was the catalyst behind the creation of the Youth Council in 2019 that became the Honolulu Youth Commission in 2020.  During her senior year at Punahou, ʻImiloa was a leader in the youth-led statewide movement to lower the voting age to 16 in Hawaiʻi's local elections. The group's "Vote 16" bill passed the State Senate and had crossed over to the House when the legislature abruptly closed in March 2020 due to the covid pandemic.  

ʻImiloa earned a BA in Global Studies and Creative Writing from The New School in New York City in 2024. Imiloa worked for State Senator Karl Rhoads as Clerk for the Senate Judiciary committee during the 2025 Legislative session.  

She was selected in October 2025, to serve on  The Red Hill  Community Representation Initiative (CRI) was created to represent community interests in the de-fueling, closure, and drinking water safety at the Red Hill Underground Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. 

ʻImiloa is an author and public speaker, and continues to study hula as a member of Hālau Hula Ka Lehua Tuahine under the direction of Kumu Ka'ilihiwa Vaughan-Darval. 

ʻImiloa is a co-founder of the Hawai'i Environmental Film Festival.

Lauren is a Xicana storyteller, advocate, and mother. She is originally from East Los Angeles, where she learned the transformative power of storytelling to reclaim truths through culturally and socially conscious narratives. She attended the University of Hawai'i Mānoa, where she studied Sociology and Theater.

Lauren worked with UNITE HERE Local 5 labor union and learned how to connect deeply rooted values to movement building. Today she works  at the Sierra Club of Hawai'i and is the co-founder of Root Cause Remedies, an environmental justice podcast dedicated to uplifting the voices fighting for the liberation of people and soil in Hawai'i. 

This film festival aligns with her passion for film as a medium of social change. Lauren looks forward to build community around shared values in aloha 'āina.

Meg is an alumna of Duke University, where she developed a profound appreciation for marine life during her time at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC. Spending her summers there solidified her commitment to ocean conservation and highlighted her sense of responsibility towards the environment. Inspired by her favorite quote, “While land may divide us, the ocean is what connects us,” Meg advocates for the importance of our shared connection to the sea.

Meg is a Native Hawaiian with degrees in  Neuroscience, Marine Science, and a Business Certificate in Markets & Management, all from Duke University. 

Meg was born and raised in Mililani and currently resides in Kaimuki. She graduated from Punahou in 2007 and  was Mrs. Hawaiʻi 2022.

Gloria Borland was raised on Oʻahu. She spent decades in Washington DC as founder and CEO of  several magazines and Executive Producer and Host of a national television series distributed on PBS. She moved back home in 2014 because she wanted  her daughter ʻImiloa to benefit from having the experience of growing up in Hawaii.  

Gloria provided critical environmental strategies during two drinking water crises. The first was in 2004 in Washington DC when the public learned of dangerous lead in the city's drinking water.  Then in Hawai'i in 2021 during the upheaval surrounding the Red Hill fuel leaks and the attempted coverup.

 Gloria gave behind the scenes advice to environmental groups to pivot away from  Navy Region Hawaii and communicate directly to the White House and the Pentagon. The result was  Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's stunning decision to permanently close the Red Hill fuel tanks in March 2022. 

In Washington DC, Gloria  gave U.S. Senate testimony in 2004 that motivated the creation of a new Environmental Protection Agency program to replace decades-old lead pipes contaminating the nation's drinking water. Her compelling senate presentation was the catalyst that resulted in a new $35 billion EPA program  for water utilities in all 50 States. 

Gloria Borland is the founder of the Inspiration Hawai'i Museum and the co-founder of the Hawai'i Environmental Film Festival.  Her goal is to mentor a new  generation of young leaders.