McKenna Raney joined the ACLU of Mississippi as the LGBTQ Justice Project Staff Attorney in August 2021, where she focuses on legal issues, advocacy, and outreach in the LGBTQ+ community. She graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law where she interned in the Northern District of Mississippi, volunteered in pro bono clinics, and was a student in the MacArthur Justice Clinic for civil rights. She identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community. McKenna studied anthropology and gender studies at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Upon graduating, she embarked on a postgraduate Thomas J. Watson fellowship to pursue a yearlong international project examining human-horse relationships in cross-cultural contexts including South Africa, Turkey, and Argentina.
McKenna is a Mississippi native and, despite leaving the state for college and work, she's always found her way back home. In addition to LGBTQ rights, she is passionate about animal welfare and making her state better for all Mississippians.