The longtime executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship will be retiring at the end of the year.

Melissa Hackney has headed the organization for 13 years, helping to fund the education and professional development of emerging leaders on the Island. During her time at the helm, Ms. Hackney oversaw an estimated 145 fellows, providing funds and a platform for them to brainstorm and develop projects in service to the Vineyard community.

“I sort of evolved into this job and it was incredibly lucky,” Ms. Hackney said. “I feel very fortunate.”

Ms. Hackney moved to the Vineyard from Philadelphia in 1996 with her husband Fain Hackney, a partner at Reynolds, Rappaport, Kaplan and Hackney, and they raised their kids on the Island.

Prior to her role at the organization, she practiced corporate and nonprofit law and volunteered at the West Tisbury Library.

“This role for me at that time, and continues to this day, really sort of met all my professional goals for myself and others that were more personal,” Ms. Hackney said. “That is because of the nature of the organization.”

The Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship was co-founded by the Kohlberg family, which also owns the Vineyard Gazette. It welcomed its first class in 2006 and since its inception has supported 180 fellows committed to the Island’s environmental and social sustainability.

Karen Kohlberg Davis, one of the organization’s founders, said the fellowship program was born from a story shared by Tom Chase. He told the Kohlbergs that his grandfather would always say the Vineyard’s main exports were fish and brains.

“We were all sitting around a table trying to think of ways to help the Vineyard be more sustainable,” Ms. Kohlberg Davis said. “And so we took Tom’s phrase and thought, how can we keep brains on the Vineyard?”

Ms. Kohlberg Davis said the projects created by the fellows are the gem of the program, and that Ms. Hackney’s dedication to the community has been instrumental for the Vision Fellowship’s growth and impact. She said the organization is looking for a new executive director who has Ms. Hackney’s familiarity with the Island.

“We’re hoping to find someone similar, because having a real network of connections on the Vineyard is a really integral part of this,” Ms. Kohlberg Davis said.

In retirement, Ms. Hackney is looking forward to more free time to travel and visit her children, who are raising families off-Island.

She will stay on to train her successor, and said during the transition, the organization will take on a smaller cohort to ensure ongoing projects remain on track. Scholarships for high school students will be unchanged, Ms. Hackney said.

Ms. Hackney feels the fellowship program is unique because it doesn’t just award scholarships and grants — it nurtures connection and collaboration. She hosted dialog dinners, where topics such as affordable housing or sustainable agriculture were discussed in-depth between fellows and community members. She would also pair fellows together to discuss the challenges and successes in their separate fields.

Ms. Hackney listed the food waste composting project as an ongoing accomplishment, which led to the establishment of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s trash task force. She also celebrated vision fellow Maggie Craig’s biochar project with the MVC, and the Island Nourish Network, a collaboration between fellows at Island Health Care and Island Grown Initiative helping to promote food security and prevent diet-related chronic illnesses.

Ms. Hackney said she feels the primary quality of all people on-Island is that they share a respect for community and a deep love for the place they live. She will miss working with the fellows on their projects and being inspired by the enthusiasm of the Vineyard’s emerging leaders.

If Ms. Hackney were to boil down all she’s learned from the program to just one lesson, it would be a philosophy she derived from interviewing applicants.

“It has been reinforced for me, over and over, that most people are good and most people want to do good...” she said. “It’s just so heartening and encouraging.”