Lisa is a Senior Business Incentives Administrator for the Ohio Department of Development. She runs the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit and the Pipeline Initiative Grant. Lisa started working with the OHPTC program in 2014 and has reviewed more than 750 projects, but she owes her start in historic preservation to playing around the ruins of a frontier dug-out on her babysitter’s farm.

Earlier work in preservation included a state-wide project for the Kentucky Transportation Center to survey, inventory, and map abandoned railroad landscapes throughout Kentucky with an eye towards future rails to trails development. Before that, a college research project on agricultural change grew out of youthful trespassing on abandoned farmsteads near her hometown in rural Minnesota.

Outside of preservation she worked in higher education teaching human geography courses and as an academic advisor. Lisa enjoys being able to continue serving as an educator in her current role as she works with applicants and shares information with communities around the state.

Lisa earned her PhD and MA in geography at the University of Kentucky. This work included minors in transportation planning and historic preservation. Her undergrad degree in community planning comes from the University of Minnesota. Throughout her career, her work has focused on the theme of how communities value historic places, and she continues to do research on the historic cultural landscapes of Southwestern Minnesota.