Brian Ikaika Klein is a doctoral student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. His research examines the political economy of energy and extractive industries in developing countries, with a particular focus on mining governance in Madagascar. He is supported by the Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Brian has worked in Washington, DC at organizations including the World Bank, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar from 2010-2012, collaborating with local village-based forest management associations to design and implement several environmental remediation and rural development projects in the country’s southeastern Vondrozo Corridor. Just prior to coming to Berkeley, Brian worked as special assistant to the chief of staff at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington. In addition to living graduate student life to the fullest, he continues to engage in periodic consulting for the World Bank on energy-related projects in southern Africa.

Brian earned a B.A. in political science and international peace studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2008. He originally hails from Kailua, Hawai‘i—and tries to get back as frequently as possible.