Hello, I'm Lauren Hanson.  I've served on the Goleta Water District board since first being elected in 2008 and I am currently the board president.

In my time in office, our community has faced great challenges.  They've been hard on all of us on the South Coast.  Multiple wildfires, including the enormous Thomas and Whittier fires; the tragic Montecito mudflows; and the longest and most crushing drought in South Coast and California history---all of these are seared into my memory, and I'm sure into yours.  And now we face the coronavirus pandemic, which continues without pause, making life anything but normal.

Through these difficult times, the Goleta Water District has been the  steady, reliable provider of a lifeline service---safe drinking water--- for everyone in the Goleta Valley.  The District is a designated Essential Service Provider, and  it makes me proud that the women and men of the District provide that service every day, through every challenge.  As a board member, I've been able to see that hard work and dedication up close.

Like other government boards, the District's board holds regular public meetings where we hear from the staff and the public and then provide policy direction to move the District forward in a good way.  "A good way," to me, means a way that is efficient, economical, and protective of our environment.  The District's job, every day, is meeting the service expectations of the community.  It also has to be looking ahead and preparing a large, complex water system for a future that is more unknowable than anyone might have thought just a few short months ago.

I feel very lucky to live in the Goleta Valley, which has been my home since 2000.  I  was born and raised in another beautiful place, Honolulu, Hawaii, and went to college on the East Coast, earning a B.A. in economics from Yale and an M.B.A. from Harvard. 

Before being elected to the District board, I served on the Eastern Goleta Valley Vision Committee, which  worked to envision a sustainable, "gentle on the earth" future for the area. I co-wrote the committee's vision document.

As a concerned citizen, I remain active in numerous community efforts to protect our natural resources and to prepare for an uncertain climate future.

I'm eager to continue working with my Goleta Water District board colleagues, including Farfalla Borah and Bill Rosen, who are also running for re-election this year. 

I'm proud to be running on a record of solid achievement, in this time when experience and a steady hand are more important than ever.