Working to Protect the ʻĀina

Lea Hong

Hawaiian Islands State Director, Trust for Public Land, Associate Vice-President & Hawaiian Islands State Director

Lea Hong has been the Hawaiʻi State Director of The Trust for Public Land (TPL) since 2006. During her tenure, TPL’s Hawaiʻi office established an Aloha ʻĀina program that returns treasured lands to Native Hawaiian stewardship, a Sustainable Hawaiʻi program (food, forests, and water), and most recently, a Parks for People Program with a pilot project at ʻAʻala Park in urban Honolulu.  Lea previously chaired the environmental and cultural resource law practice group at the Honolulu law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing (now Dentons), and worked at the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.  Lea graduated from Leilehua High School, Rice University, and the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai‘i, where she serves on the Friends of the Law School and has taught classes on environmental litigation, environmental regulatory compliance, and conservation transactions. She has received a number of recognitions which she credits to the communities with whom she works, including Honolulu Magazine’s Islander of the Year (Environment), the Hawai‘i Conservation Alliance Outstanding Leadership Award, and the Hawai‘i Women Lawyers Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year. She is from Wahiawā on the island of Oʻahu. 

In her spare time, Lea enjoys surfing, hiking, and dog agility with her two mini-labradoodles Milo and Ogo. 

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“I am forever grateful to WSRSL for the excellent and affordable legal education I received.   I owe my career in environmental and cultural resouces law and conservation to WSRSL, its professors and staff, and the network of wonderful and supportive classmates that has emerged since we’ve graduated.”