Ryan Coonerty

Ryan Coonerty (born March 10, 1974) is an American businessman, academic, author, and politician, who served as mayor of Santa Cruz, California, United States, in 2008 and 2011. In addition to serving on the Santa Cruz city council, Coonerty co-founded NextSpace Coworking, also in Santa Cruz, in 2008. Coonerty is a lecturer for the Legal Studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as the Political Science department at Cabrillo College. He is the author of Etched in Stone: Enduring Words From Our Nation's Monuments, published by the National Geographic Society (NGS).

In 2010 and 2011, Coonerty was the Second Harvest Food Bank’s (known as Feeding America since 2008) "Holiday Food Drive" co-chair; in 2010, the drive set a record by collecting 2,200,000 pounds (1,000,000 kg) of food.