The Ohio Soil and Water Conservation Commission will cause an election of Supervisors of the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) to be held in accordance with Chapter 940 of the Ohio Revised Code. Individuals who own or occupy land within the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District and are 18 years of age or older may vote for Supervisor.
How does a Franklin County resident or landowner vote?
There are 3 ways an eligible voter can cast a ballot:
- At the SWCD office, 1404 Goodale Blvd Ste 100 Columbus OH 43212, from 8/19/2026 until 9/17/2026 during normal business hours (8:30-4:30 Monday- Friday); or
- At the SWCD Annual Meeting, which will take place at Bank Run Metro Park 1570 Rohr Rd Lockbourne OH on 9/17/2026 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.; or
- Voting absentee from 8/19/2026 until 9/17/2026 , by requesting an election ballot from the SWCD office at the following address 1404 Goodale Blvd Ste 100 Columbus OH 43212, by calling 614-486-9613, or emailing our Office Coordinator. Absentee ballots must be received by the SWCD office by 9/17/2026. Two (2) Supervisors will be elected to a three-year term commencing January 1, 2027 and ending December 31, 2029.Nominees and their bios are below.
Kim Landsbergen
Kim Landsbergen, Ph.D., CSE has served on the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors since 2021, bringing to that role a career built on exactly the science the district's mission demands: soil health, watershed function, native plant ecology, and the applied conservation work that connects scientific understanding to land stewardship.
Prior to joining the Board, she served as a volunteer Associate Board member with FSWCD beginning in 2014. In Franklin County and across central Ohio, Kim has worked hands-on to design and establish pollinator habitats and to strengthen urban tree canopies across the region. She also serves as Tree Commissioner for the City of Upper Arlington, where she has lived for more than 15 years, and she has been a resident of Ohio since 2001. She is a passionate advocate for urban biodiversity and "spongy cities ", and can be found doing volunteer outreach as "Ask Dr. Treebiology ".
Kim is a tenured Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Ohio State University's Museum of Biodiversity. She earned her Ph.D. in Forest Ecosystem Analysis from the University of Washington, her M.S. from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, and she completed a postdoctoral climate change fellowship at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. She is a Certified Senior Ecologist (CSE) with the Ecological Society of America.
Fred Milan
Fred Milan has served as a member of the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District Associate Board for 3 years. He just keeps showing up to meetings and getting involved.
Fred is the Sourcewater Protection Manager for Del-Co Water where he monitors the rivers putting the best quality water into a 1.6 billion gallon reservoir system and preventing algal growth in the reservoirs before that stored water reaches the treatment plant. Fred has been a licensed Water Supply Operator in Ohio for 18 years and a Class III for the last 13. The Watershed is an enormous area, and it takes all of us working together to make a difference.
Leigh Anne Ward
Leigh Anne received dual degrees from Capital University in 2000, a BA in art therapy and a BSW in social work with a focus on children and families. She is an advocate of using animal assisted therapy and horticultural therapy with children and families, especially those impacted by trauma and domestic violence. She developed a psychological research project for the Buckeye Ranch which was presented at the 2000 North American Riders for the Handicapped Association Conference. As a Linden resident, Leigh Anne became a community advocate in 2013, and co-founded the North Linden Community Watch and The Miracle Garden in 2014 to help address the need for food security and sustainability in at-risk communities. As Director of The Miracle Garden, she taught gardening in the Smart 2.0 Summer Program at the Millennium School through the Afrocentric Personal Development Shop. Also in 2014, she became a Clark County Master Gardener, helping with their seed trial plots and with the Farm Science Review. For the past 7 years she has been the Coordinator for the Community Cleanup Crew, a sentencing alternative for the Franklin County Municipal Court, and managed the Ohio EPA Litter Management Grant which provided supplemental funding for the program. With the support of the grant, she focused on removing and recycling illegally dumped tires from public property throughout Franklin County. Leigh Anne was able to bring the Community Cleanup Crew to support cleanup and beautification projects with area commissions, block watches, civic associations, and environmental organizations such as the Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed, the Friends of the Alum Creek and its Tributaries, the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District, Columbus Recreation and Parks, Metro Parks, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Prior to that she conducted product research for Kurtz Brothers and worked as a Landscape Enhancement Specialist.