Melinda Bolo, Emmanuel Baltazar join MEO Board of Directors

Maui Economic Opportunity has welcomed two new board members – Melinda Mindy Bolo to the Lana‘i Community Health Center seat and Emmanuel Manny Baltazar to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 seat.

Bolo replaces council member Gabe Johnson, who represented the Lānaʻi Kūpuna Council. The council gave up its Resident Sector seat to the Lana‘i Community Health Center, which appointed Bolo, the center’s Community Education and Wellness manager, to the seat.

Baltazar replaced Charles Andrion in the ILWU’s private sector seat.

The 21-member tripartite MEO Board of Directors consists equally of representatives of the private, resident and government sectors. The board establishes policy for the nonprofit 59-year-old Community Action Agency that assists low income residents, kūpuna, youth and persons with disabilities. MEO also has been helping those impacted by the fires with relief, employment and business support programs.

Born and raised on Lānaʻi, Bolo is active in the community, serving on the Lānaʻi High and Elementary School Foundation advisory committee and Lānaʻi Community Benefit Fund board and as co-director of the only acting academy on the island, the Lānaʻi Academy of Performing Arts.

She earned an Associate of Arts degree in biblical theology from Southwestern Assemblies of God University and a Community Health Worker Certificate from Kapiolani Community College.

“My intention in being on the MEO Board is to represent every resident on my island and be a liaison from MEO to my community residents,” she said.

Baltazar is a business agent for the ILWU Maui Division and a leader in the Filipino community. He was named Outstanding Filipino Community Leader in 2010 and Gintong Pamana Leadership awardee in 2014.

He also is an executive member of the State Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi and a former commissioner on the county Board of Variances and Appeals.

A Kahului resident, Baltazar has a master’s in educational management and supervision and a bachelor’s in elementary education. He also is a dance instructor and choir master.

“I am very passionate in serving others,” he said.