BY KARYL ANN ARMBRUSTER

Our next League of Women Voters Lunch with a Leader will be on Thursday, July 18 at the Fellowship Hall of the Unitarian Church on Sage from noon-1 p.m. Abbey Hayward will be our guest speaker. She works for the Department of Public Utilities as the Water and Energy Conservation Coordinator. She develops education and outreach programming focused on reducing customer consumption and utility resource waste through behavioral and technological adaptations. 

Abbey graduated from Bowling Green State University with a dual degree in Environmental Science and Geology with a focus in Watershed Management. During her senior year, her honors thesis was to evaluate living a zero-waste lifestyle for nearly a year. Abbey worked at Soil and Water Conservation Districts across Ohio implementing watershed action plans for Grand Lake St Mary’s and Captina Creek. She ended her Ohio time as the Executive Director for the Captina Creek Land Conservancy.

In the fall of 2019, Abbey and her partner sold their house and cars, packed up their stuff, and traveled the country in a 1983 Vanagon for a while. Since rejoining society and settling in the Land of Enchantment, they have started a family and enjoy time outdoors and touring the playgrounds of the county.