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Brittaney Key

Brittaney Key is a second-year Progress of Ideas scholar from Honolulu, HI, currently completing her final year in the Master of Environmental Management program at the Yale School of the Environment. As a proud indigenous (Uchinaanchu) woman herself, one of Brittaney’s professional focuses is in moving indigenous rights from paper law to real practice within environmental policy implementation. Brittaney took special interest in water use and water rights, consequently specializing her degree in Water Resource Science and Management and recently completing a summer internship with the State of Hawaiʻi Commission on Water Resource Management. To complement her office work, she visited environmental justice sites in West Kauaʻi in August 2024 with Native Hawaiian community advocates to better understand the land use and water conflicts there. Brittaney’s summer experience was further enriched thanks to the Progress of Idea’s conference stipend, which funded Brittaney’s attendance at the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference.

Brittaney Key is a second-year Progress of Ideas scholar from Honolulu, HI, currently completing her final year in the Master of Environmental Management program at the Yale School of the Environment. As a proud indigenous (Uchinaanchu) woman herself, one of Brittaney’s professional focuses is in moving indigenous rights from paper law to real practice within environmental policy implementation. Brittaney took special interest in water use and water rights, consequently specializing her degree in Water Resource Science and Management and recently completing a summer internship with the State of Hawaiʻi Commission on Water Resource Management. To complement her office work, she visited environmental justice sites in West Kauaʻi in August 2024 with Native Hawaiian community advocates to better understand the land use and water conflicts there. Brittaney’s summer experience was further enriched thanks to the Progress of Idea’s conference stipend, which funded Brittaney’s attendance at the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference. 

The conference provided a valuable opportunity for expanding her professional network, strengthening connections, and staying informed of developments in Hawaiʻi’s environmental policies and community-led efforts in natural resource conservation.

Outside of academics, Brittaney helped the Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate establish and run its first External Affairs Committee to advocate from local to national levels on issues impacting students’ quality of life, and she works as a literacy tutor for the nonprofit New Haven Reads to support its mission in uplifting K-12 students who are reading below grade level. After graduation this coming May, Brittaney anticipates returning to Hawaiʻi after a period of rest and rejuvenation to continue her work in environmental policy and reorienting state institutions to communities’ and Native Hawaiians’ voices.