Representative Joy San Buenaventura of District 4 Puna, is a product of the Hawaii public school system: Joy went to Lunalilo Elementary School, Washington Middle School and graduated from McKinley High School.  After graduating from high school, Joy and her family moved to Las Vegas where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Nevada Las Vegas.  In Las Vegas, she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency as a computer programmer and with Reynolds Electrical Engineering as a law clerk.  Joy went on to receive her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law where her classmates included DLNR director Suzanne Case.
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The Representative was a lecturer of business law at UH-Hilo; and in 1991, she was appointed Per Diem District Court Judge, making her the youngest judge in Hawaii at the age of 32. In one of her early court-appointed cases, she represented the first geothermal protesters opposing the proposed geothermal well at Wao Kele O Puna. In 1992 she was the first attorney to prosecute/settle a breast implant case in the State of Hawaii.  In 2013-2014 she was honored to have taken two of her clients' cases to the highest court in the State of Hawaii: the Hawaii Supreme Court; having won one other petition for writ of certiorari years earlier.  Joy volunteers her time helping the public have access to the courts through the Self-Help Center, and helping the public resolve their disputes amicably through Ku'ikahi Mediation Center. 
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Representative Joy San Buenaventura has been a 30 year resident of East Hawaii and currently lives in a photo-voltaic powered home in Hawaiian Paradise Park with her husband, "Weldin" Sheldon Lehman.