Sarah Kelley is Senior Program Officer at Island Foundation, a private foundation based in Marion, MA. She manages the Foundation’s Environment program area, which includes grantmaking on sustainable agriculture, food, and fiber systems; climate change and alternative energy; land and water conservation; and marine mammal conservation. Before coming to the Foundation in 2009, she served for five 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 textiles and fibers. She has been a shepherd on a 200-head sheep farm, managed production for the farm’s line of woolen goods, and sewn professionally for several years in theater costume shops. Sarah serves on the Board 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. 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. Sarah lives in Providence, RI with her family.
