Joan Hartmann has made a career out of community advocacy. A Santa Barbara resident since 1999, she’s served as a professor in government and environmental studies at renowned institutions, spent six years advocating for children in the foster care system, and helped found the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project - among countless other initiatives. Today, she serves as the supervisor for Santa Barbara County’s Third District, where she’s on the forefront of addressing some of the most pressing issues faced by the region. In this episode, Stacy sits down with Joan to talk about some of her initiatives in local government - everything from launching green classroom policies to incentivizing renewable energy development to working with the state to expand affordable housing. If there’s one takeaway from this episode, it’s that even though Santa Barbara has a lot on its plate, it also has a lot of people willing to fight for a just, regenerative community.
