Board of Supervisors

In Ohio, soil and water conservation districts are administered by a board of five supervisors. Supervisors are elected to three-year terms in public elections conducted by the Ohio Soil and Water Conservation Commission. Supervisors volunteer their time, energy and expertise.

2025 Board of Supervisors

Jessica D'Ambrosio

Board Chair
Jessica D’Ambrosio is the Western Lake Erie Project Director for The Nature Conservancy in Ohio, where she works with agriculture to keep farming productive and profitable while protecting Lake Erie and its tributaries. She believes that we need to work collaboratively to establish a shared community vision and set of goals in order to protect the land and waters on which all life depends. Prior to joining the Conservancy, she was an assistant professor of cooperative education in the sciences for Antioch College and was a program manager for the Ohio Nonpoint-source Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) Program, an extension education program of The Ohio State University.

Jessica has a MS in environmental science and a Ph.D. in soil and water engineering from The Ohio State University. Her area of expertise includes watershed management, hydrology and agricultural drainage which has lead to being a technical adviser for many state and local groups involved in both urban and agricultural water resources management including MORPC, Franklin Soil and Water, The Nature Conservancy, watershed groups, and municipalities.

Leigh Anne Ward

Vice-chair

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.

Erin Miller

Treasurer
Erin Miller is the Assistant Vice President of Energy Policy and Sustainability for American Municipal Power (AMP). Erin has been with AMP since 2017. In this role, she spearheads the organization’s sustainability programs, manages the member-led Focus Forward initiative and associated electric vehicle sub-group, manages the organization’s grant services program, and tracks renewable energy policies at the state and federal level.

Previously, Miller served as the Environmental Steward with the City of Columbus for nearly eight years. In that role, she managed programs such as the Branch Out Columbus tree initiative, the GreenSpot program, and RecyColumbus. She has also occupied various positions with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), including Director of the Center for Energy and Environment as well as Greenways Program Manager, where she coordinated with various organizations and agencies to develop and implement the Greenways Program and Greenways: A Plan for Franklin County. Prior to MORPC, Erin served as the Executive Director of the Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW).  

She holds a bachelor’s degree in ecology and environmental sciences from Otterbein University, has completed the Ohio Environmental Leaders Institute at the Ohio State University and also has attained the designation of LEED® Green Associate™ from Green Business Certification Inc.

Miller currently serves on the American Public Power Association Smart Energy Provider Panel; the Smart Electric Power Alliance Program Advisory Committee; and the Large Public Power Council Emerging Trends Task Force.

Kim Landsbergen

Secretary
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.

Lydia Cumming

Board Member

Lydia Cumming received a BS in Geology from Ohio State University. She was employed at Battelle, an independent not-for-profit research institute. She enjoyed an awarding career during which she worked her way up from an intern to project manager of research programs in areas of soil and water remediation and pollution prevention. Consequently, she is experienced with regulatory compliance, grant writing, data analysis, budgeting, and presenting scienced-based information about environmental issues. She is passionate about learning and applying new processes to solve problems and improve outcomes. She cares about the quality of work and how to best communicate results to maximize the societal benefits of research. She is currently retired. She resides in the neighborhood of Harrison West and has been the vice president of the Harrison West Society since 2023, supporting its mission of encouraging new and potential programs to improve the neighborhood conditions and environment