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Meet Josh Hastings

Josh Hastings is the Founder and Principal of Sound Mind Strategies. Having grown up on a poultry farm and Maryland’s very first certified organic farm, he has a deep appreciation for (and understanding of) the complexities of agriculture, environmental sustainability, natural resources, and land use.


Prior to creating Sound Mind Strategies, in 2024, Josh spent 15 years working in state and local land use policy, and within nonprofit leadership. He is the past Executive Director of Forever Maryland – a statewide nonprofit that supports the conservation of forests, farms, parks, critical habitat, and Maryland’s most vital lands.


Before joining Forever Maryland, Josh spent a decade within the Maryland land trust community (including a few years serving as the Deputy Director of the Lower Shore Land Trust and seven years as the Policy Manager at Eastern Shore Land Conservancy), and two years as the Legislative Assistant to the Chair of the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee, in the Maryland State Senate.

Josh Hastings Salisbury, MD

He currently serves on the board of the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology and is a member of the Salisbury-Wicomico Metropolitan Planning Organization. Josh has led numerous vital partnerships and collaboratives including: the Delmarva Land and Litter Collaborative, the Partners for Open Space coalition, and the Delmarva Restoration and Conservation Network.

In 2019, Josh was appointed by Gov. Hogan to serve on the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council’s Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) and served a previous gubernatorial appointment on Maryland’s Rural Legacy Advisory Committee.

In December 2023, Josh Hastings was chosen to receive the prestigious Maryland Sustainable Growth Award – in “Leadership and Service” – for his work to create the Maryland Greenspace Equity program and to set a new state goal of protecting 40% of Maryland land by 2040. Josh is an Institute for Policy Studies – New Economy Fellow, a LEAD Maryland (Class VIII) alumnus, a University of Maryland “Academy of Excellence in Local Governance” graduate and an elected official -- having been elected in November 2018 and re-elected in November 2022, to the Wicomico County Council.

He has earned two bachelor’s degrees from Salisbury University, in business and in political science, and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He and his wife, Alyssa, live in Salisbury, MD.