A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Lizzy Gardner graduated from Western Kentucky University with a bachelor’s in Recreation Administration and Outdoor Leadership, and continued with WKU to complete a master’s program in 2018 in Recreation & Sport Administration, focusing on Environmental Education. Lizzy has been passionate about the outdoors since she was a young child and has developed to see outdoor recreation become an integral part of her life, both personally and professionally. Lizzy started working in the field in 2009 at a residential summer camp, and has continued worked for the DOE Clean Fuels Coalition, local outdoor retailers in Indiana and Kentucky, as an instructor in outdoor recreation at WKU and Lees-McRae College, and as the Director of Campus Recreation & Outdoor Programs at Lees-McRae in North Carolina. In her free time Lizzy enjoys running on road and trail, mountain biking, backpacking, paddling, cooking and spending time with her dog Ozzie.