YOUNGSTOWN — Lowellville resident Jennifer Johnson says Aqua Ohio has worked to diversify at leadership levels, as well as on the front line.

Johnson visited the Rotary Club of Youngstown meeting Wednesday to speak about Aqua Ohio, where she works as area manager. She gave a quick history of the company and an outline of local capital improvement projects that can be expected.

Johnson also briefly touched upon her duties as the first female area manager of Aqua Ohio in the state.

“It makes me proud,” she said, as the water business is what she described as a “male-dominated industry.”

Johnson said she has not met adversity, but people still assumed she was a secretary and not a member of management. Her role, she said, made her work harder at “overcoming any stereotype.”

Her colleagues and team are supportive of her, she said.

Since 2015, Johnson has held the title of area manager of Aqua Ohio’s Struthers Division. She oversees financial viability, customer service, regulatory compliance, divisional growth and employee and community engagements.

Her career has come full circle.

All but five years of her life, Johnson has lived in Lowellville, except when she and husband Kevin moved to Columbus from 2005 until 2010.

Still, the couple knew they were going to move back to the area at some point. “We always knew we would,” she said.

Johnson, 46, graduated from Lowellville High School in 1993. She went on to earn a bachelor of science in business administration and then a master of business administration, each from Youngstown State University.

It was before college graduation that Johnson was introduced to Aqua Ohio over lunch. A new position was opening for communication, where she ended up starting in June 1998, fresh out of college.

Working her way up into human resources, Johnson worked at a law firm in Columbus, also in human resources.

Upon moving back, Aqua Ohio offered her a management position; then she went to YSU for a career services department. She then came back to Aqua Ohio, where she has been since as area manager.

She saw familiar faces. “I came back greeting people that were front-line people … that I met when I was 23 years old,” Johnson said.

For girls not sure what to do as they grow and face graduation, Johnson said it is OK, and they should let their journeys be malleable. “Don’t set a path made in concrete,” she said.

Set goals along the way, but young women should keep in mind to network with others, and “learn what you can about things you don’t know about.”

Another piece of advice for women in the work force is to remember to keep a balance, but also remember priorities change throughout life.

When she was graduating college, starting a career and getting married, Johnson was able to focus on community involvement, she said.

Then her son Kevin Jr. was born, “and I really scaled that back,” she said. Now that her son is a teenager, she is able to be more active in the community again, she said.

At the podium, Johnson shared that Aqua Ohio serves about 25,000 customers in Campbell and Struthers, the villages of Lowellville, New Middletown; and townships of Beaver, Boardman, Canfield Coitsville, Poland, Springfield; plus the communities of Masury and Lake Tomahawk.

In Ohio, there is a $70 million capital improvement project, with about $9 million focused locally.

This year on Market Street from Western Reserve Road to Interstate 76, crews will be replacing pipes prone to water line breaks, as well as on state Route 170 in Poland Township.

After acquiring the Campbell water plant on Wilson Avenue last year, the plan this year is to phase that location out, Johnson said, connecting the city through Struthers with the Poland Township plant.

Statewide, Aqua Ohio employes 170 people, operating 33 drinking water plants and systems and more than 2,200 miles of pipe.

Starting as the Mahoning Valley Water Company in 1905, the company came to fruition to supply water to steel mills along the Mahoning River. In 1916, the existing plant on Route 170 in Poland Township was built.

The operations center is headquartered in Struthers.