Hi, I'm Hannah
I grew up on a farm in California’s Central Valley. My dad farmed alfalfa, corn, and cotton and weekends were spent irrigating fields, hunting for gophers, and having adventures on 58 acres of the most beautiful dirt you can imagine. When he got sick, my sister and I moved home and took over the farm. We didn’t have a plan or more than $6, but we had a deep sense of responsibility to keep farming. We hustled. I worked full time to keep the lights on and my sister led the operation. We started a chicken business, sold eggs and crops at farmers markets and small retailers.
We stretched every dollar and Googled every question. But when our well went dry for the second time and the economics no longer worked, we had to make a decision I still think about, and regret, every single day. We sold the ranch.
That experience changed me.
I know how hard it is to farm in California.
I know what it feels like to not have options.
And I know what we lose when farms disappear.
After leaving the ranch, I continued my work in philanthropy - first at Valley Children’s Healthcare, raising millions of dollars for pediatric care, and later at the Central Valley Community Foundation, where I supported regional grantmaking and helped launch major initiatives focused on agriculture, workforce, and innovation. That work gave me a front-row seat to how money moves, and how powerful it is when funding helps the right people and programs scale.
Now I sit in the middle of both worlds
I started Hannah Johnson & Co. to bridge the gap between farmers and funders, regulators and researchers, higher ed and industry. I bring people together who don’t usually collaborate, and help them find a shared path forward. Sometimes that means building out a multi-day convening. Sometimes it’s helping a foundation invest smarter. Sometimes it’s just calling the right farmworker or grower who can cut through the noise and tell it like it is.
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I believe in relationships. I believe in candor.
And I believe in agriculture.
My work spans soil health, water, workforce, food systems, innovation, rural communities and policy. But the thread through all of it is people. I care deeply about agriculture and the communities it serves, and I want to make sure they’re not left behind as our systems and landscapes change.