Orange County environmentalist wins award from Friends of Lake Apopka

As a child, Liz Johnson loved to explore nature. 

She would turn over rocks and look at the worms and anything else she would find underneath. 

Any chance she had, she was spending her time outside. 

“Every time I’m in nature, or I think about nature, I’m just in awe,” Johnson said. “Take detritus, on the surface, it just looks like old cypress needles and some leaves and twigs. But if you were to actually get a handful of it and you were to look at it under a microscope, you would be amazed at the number of critters doing jobs that’s in something that seems so nondescript. When I think of nature, that’s what gets me so excited, I’m just in awe about how everything seems to have a purpose.”

It’s that passion for nature that has driven Johnson, who is an assistant manager with the Orange County Environmental Protection Division, in her 37-year environmental career and has led to her receiving the 2025 Jim Thomas Environmental Hero Award from Friends of Lake Apopka. 

Johnson has worked with Thomas on numerous occasions when he was serving as a consultant on a project on which she was working. She said he was one of the consultants that was “going to do it the right way,” which she admired. She knew she could trust him. 

To receive an award named for Thomas was an honor for Johnson. She said she never believed she would be in the same company of award recipients as people she considered true environmental heroes. 

“I never saw myself as that, because it’s just doing what I love,” she said.  

Johnson started with the St. Johns River Water Management District in 1988. She said her years with the district were filled with amazing people who helped her make fond memories that grew her heart for public service. 

In 2000, Johnson wanted to grow in her career, so she took a position with Orange County, where she was able to hone in on her skills and broaden her horizons. Rather than focusing on 19 counties, she only had one to work with, and rather than working with consultants and environmental professionals, she was working more with the average citizen. 

“When you’re doing something you love, it just doesn’t seem like you’re doing anything special,” Johnson said. “If it’s something you love, you get up, you’re excited and you’re like, ‘What can I accomplish today that will make things better tomorrow?’ I think that’s really a lot of what it is.”

Johnson said she wouldn’t have completed as many projects or accomplished as much throughout her career if it weren’t for those with whom she worked. She considers her efforts a drop in the bucket. 

“Hardly anybody can do anything by themselves,” she said. “I might have gotten the award, but I didn’t achieve it on my own. We all earned it.”

Reflecting on her career as she prepares to retire next year, Johnson said she hopes she’s inspired people to enter the environmental field.