Sarah Kelley

Sarah Kelley is Senior Program Officer at the Island Foundation, a family foundation based in Marion, MA. She manages the Foundation’s Environment program area, which includes grantmaking in the areas of sustainable agriculture and food systems; climate change and alternative energy; land and water conservation; and marine mammal conservation. Before coming to the Foundation in 2009, she served for 5 years as Executive Director of Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership (SEMAP), a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and expanding sustainable farming and access to local food. Sarah also has extensive research and work experience in the area of sustainable textiles and fibers as a part of regional agricultural systems. She holds an M.S. in Plant and Soil Sciences from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a B.A. in History with a concentration on the Irish linen industry from Yale University.

Sarah currently serves as a Board member of New England Grassroots Environment Fund, as a guest lecturer on sustainability in apparel production at Rhode Island School of Design, and on the Membership Committee of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF). She is the author of the 2017 report “Common Threads: U.S. Foundation Opportunities in Sustainable Fiber and Textiles,” published by SAFSF.

As a New England Grassroots Environment Fund Board member, Sarah is honored to help build on the Island Foundation’s long connection with the Grassroots Fund, going back to its founding, and to contribute to its innovative new approaches to values-driven and participatory grantmaking.