Water Rights, Human Rights | A Conversation with Kelsey Leonard

Kelsey Leonard is the first Native American woman to earn a science degree from the University of Oxford, which she earned in 2012. She earned an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from St. Cross College, one of the thirty-eight c olleges of the University of Oxford. Her master's thesis, “Water Quality For Native Nations: Achieving A Trust Responsibility”, discusses water quality regulation and how water resources on tribal land are not protected. Kelsey Leonard is an enrolled member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and is originally from the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Long Island, New York. In 2010 she was the first member of the Shinnecock Nation to graduate from Harvard University. Her Harvard degree is a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Anthropology with a secondary field in Ethnic Studies.

Kelsey Leonard currently represents the Shinnecock Indian Nation as the Tribal Co-Lead on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body of the U.S. National Ocean Council. This planning body consisting of tribal, federal, and state entities is charged with guiding the protection, maintenance, and restoration of America's oceans and coasts. As a Shinnecock citizen and environmental leader, Kelsey strives to be a strong advocate for the protection of Indigenous waters through enhanced interjurisdictional coordination and meaningful consultation.

She has been recognized as a 30 under 30 world environmental leader by the North American Association for Environmental Education and a “Native American 40 Under 40” award recipient by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. Additionally, her work with Indigenous Nations to protect the Ocean received a Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Policy Solutions.

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