Toledo GROWs’ new director plans to continue vision of long

Sarah Ryley is Toledo GROWs’ new executive director and will succeed Yvonne Dubielak, who has spent a dozen years honing the urban-gardening nonprofit’s mission and expanding its reach.

The duo worked together for two years before Mrs. Dubielak told the board that she would be retiring at the end of the year. A succession plan was hatched and approved by the nonprofit’s board, and Mrs. Ryley, the organization’s development director, officially became the executive director Oct. 1.

Mrs. Dubielak will stay on as the “executive mentor,” she joked, until the end of the year. She has led Toledo GROWs since 2013, when it was an outreach program of the Toledo Botanical Garden, and shepherded the nonprofit as it became its own entity.

Toledo GROWs, short for gardens revitalize our world, suppor