Landecker Named Executive Director of Environmental Defense Center

David Landecker, former Santa Barbara City Councilmember and current president of the Citizen’s Planning Association, has been hired as the new executive director of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), it was announced Friday, July 13.

Landecker, who resigned from his post at the CPA in lieu of his new gig, had spent six years on EDC’s board of directors in the 1990s. He replaces Cameron Benson, who is now the City of Santa Barbara’s Creeks Restoration and Water Quality Manager.

“David is intimately familiar with the organization and the issues that matter most to this community,” EDC board president Whitney Abbott said in a statement. “He will build upon Cameron Benson’s successes in providing a link between the EDC and its local supporters who are critical to the organization’s success.”

The EDC is completely funded through private donations, and has been on the Central Coast since 1977, touting itself as the only non-profit environmental law firm between Los Angeles and San Francisco.