County of Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors Supervisor Ryan Coonerty

Ryan Coonerty was elected to the District 3 seat on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors in 2014 and was sworn in January 2015. After announcing his decision not to run for a third term, Connerty left the board in January 2023.

The former supervisor comes from a family of local business owners and public officials in the Santa Cruz area. When Coonerty won the election for District 3 supervisor, he replaced his father, Neal Coonerty, on the board. Ryan grew up in Santa Cruz and left to attend college at the University of Oregon. He went to law school in Virginia and formerly served as the associate dean of the Monterey College of Law. He continues to lecture on legal studies at UC Santa Cruz, while serving as the host of a popular podcast called An Honorable Profession. He also founded NextSpace, a coworking space in downtown Santa Cruz that was recently sold to Pacific Workplaces. He is the author of two books, including one about famous phrases to be found in U.S. national monuments. Before serving on the Board of Supervisors he performed two stints on the Santa Cruz City Council.

First elected: Nov. 4, 2014

Day job: Podcast host, college professor

Alma maters: University of Virginia School of Law (juris doctor); London School of Economics (master’s degree, international relations); University of Oregon (bachelor’s degree, history)

Notable quote: “We have a lot of great, proven programs. What we haven’t done yet is align those programs, so that when somebody is ready for treatment, they get treatment. Then, when they finish treatment, they then have housing, and then they get job training and childcare.”