Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Melissa Chimera is a conservationist whose work consists of research-based investigations into species extinction, globalization and human migration. She studied natural resources management at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and has worked in Pacific Island land stewardship and environmental education since 1996. Her solo and curatorial exhibitions include Remittance (2022, Above the Equator Gallery), Migrant (2019, Honolulu Museum of Art), and The Far Shore: Navigating Homelands (2018, Arab American National Museum). Other projects include Inheritance, Land and Spirit for the Sharjah Biennial 9, United Arab Emirates and the University of Hawai‘i podcast Land & People which investigates Pacific Islanders’ relationship with land. Chimera has exhibited throughout the U.S., Asia and the Middle East, where her work has been reviewed by Washington Post and Hyperallergic. She is the recipient of the Catherine E. B. Cox Award and a finalist for the Duke University Lange-Taylor Prize. In 2022, she was Anchorage Museum’s artist-in-residence and University of Toledo’s Mikhail Endowment grantee for her work concerning immigrant narratives. Her work resides in the collections of Arab American National Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, and Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.