Sarasota County's University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension and Sustainability office recently hired Lee Hayes Byron as its new director. Byron has served with Sarasota County government since 2005, starting her career as a land manager in the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program. The Sarasota native then became the county’s sustainability manager in 2008 and has served in that position since. We named Byron one of our "People to Watch" in 2015.