Ryan Coonerty advises businesses, leaders, and organizations seeking to impact public policy outcomes. He is a former two-time Mayor and County Supervisor of Santa Cruz County (CA) as well as an entrepreneur, author, and educator. Currently, in addition to being Executive Director of Leadership Santa Cruz County, he serves as a Senior Policy Advisor to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and a Director at Nielsen Studios. He is a long-time lecturer on law and government at UC Santa Cruz and the Panetta Institute for Public Policy. Coonerty is also the founder and cohost of "An Honorable Profession" podcast -- a top ranked podcast that introduces the next generation of American leaders. Prior to running for office, he served as Legislative Counsel for the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age and professional staff for the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former Presidents Ford and Carter. He also co-founded NextSpace Coworking.He is the author of many articles in national and regional publications as well as the co-author of The Rise of the Naked Economy – How to Benefit from the Changing Workplace (Macmillan, 2013) and Etched in Stone – Enduring Words from our National Monuments (National Geographic, 2007). In 2020, he spoke at TEDx about innovation and democracy. Ryan was selected by the Aspen Institute to be a Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership as one of "the nation’s most promising young elected officials," a fellow at the UC National Center on Free Speech and Civic Engagement and a "Community Hero" by the Red Cross of Santa Cruz County.Ryan graduated from the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors College. He received a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in Washington DC.