Join the Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCalREN)'s  Q3 Regional Workforce Alliance Meeting on Wednesday, September 9, 2026,  from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm at CEC’s Environmental Hub in Santa Barbara or via Zoom. 

This meeting focuses on accelerating regional climate resilience by leveraging the historic strengths of the Central Coast’s agricultural, design, engineering, and energy workforce. Together, we will discuss how local training programs can be mobilized for high-impact regional projects—including microgrid deployment, clean agricultural fleet transitions, and low-carbon building materials.

 

Schedule:

11:30am-12:00pm - Lunch (in-person)

12:00pm-12:05pm - Welcome by Lujuana Medina, Environmental Initiatives Division Manager, Internal Services Division, LA County

12:05pm-12:10pm - Moderator's Welcome by Tessa Charnofsky, Special Assistant, Internal Services Division, LA County

12:10pm-12:30pm - Keynote Presentation by Das Williams, Senior Advisor of Policy and Legislative Affairs, Central Coast Community Energy and Former State Legislator and Santa Barbara County Supervisor

12:30-1:30pm - Panel Presentations by Amanda Martin, Regenerative Builder; Grace Wu, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Program, UC Santa Barbara; and Craig Lewis, Founder & Executive Director, Clean Coalition.

1:30-1:45pm - Q&A Discussion

1:45-2:00pm - Program Spotlight with Em Johnson, Senior Director Climate Programs and Kathi Brennan King, Director of Education & Operations, CEC Environmental Hub

2:00-2:30pm - Tour of CEC Environmental Hub (optional)

 

About SoCalREN Regional Workforce Alliance

The SoCalREN Regional Workforce Alliance (RWA) brings together industry, local government, community-based organizations, training, and education stakeholders to collaborate, network, share tools and resources, and take meaningful action that will advance our region’s workforce ecosystem. The purpose is to gain and provide insight on programs, policies, opportunities, gaps and challenges facing workforce development initiatives in Southern California. 

Community Microgrids

Agriculture

Low Carbon Building Products

Designed by Joe Andrualitis of Andrualitis + Mixon, CEC’s Environmental Hub focuses on the user experience, with special attention to air quality, natural light, and acoustics. In addition to Andrualitis + Mixon, key partners included Natalie Greenside and Melissa Mohr Brown of MN Studio — a woman-owned interior design firm, and the team at Specialty Construction. Together they provided creative direction to ensure the space showcases energy-saving technologies, recycled building materials, and other sustainable building features.

There are Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) bus stops located all along the downtown corridor, with a stop directly behind the building at Chapala and Anapamu Streets for lines 6, 11, and 2010.

The Hub is adjacent to above-ground parking (first 75 minutes free) at City Lot 5 (1230 Chapala St). We highly encourage the use of an electric vehicle if you must drive. There are 34 EV charging stations at nearby City Lot 6 (Granada Garage, 1221 Anacapa St).