Whelan "thrilled" to assume director post at Sustainable
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Sustainable Nantucket has hired Nantucketer Michelle Whelan as its new executive director. Whelan fills the position vacated by founding director Christine Silverstein, who left the nonprofit on Sept. 28.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent Michelle Whelan: We're just growing so fast that we do need to strategize and move ahead."

The eight-year-old community preservation group chose Whelan, 37, from a field of about 15 interviewees and three finalists, in part because of her energy and her vision for Nantucket's future.

"Michelle definitely had the most energy and focus on how to use our membership better and our volunteers. She reflected our sense in going forward so Sustainable Nantucket can be more of the grassroots foundation we want it to be," said Sustainable Nantucket Board of Trustees Chairman Wendy Hudson. "We started out trying to find a new person to fill that role. But there wasn't anyone that could do what Christine did, so the process took a little bit more time."

Whelan graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with dual degrees in studio art and English literature in 1998 after moving to the island in 1994.

Last summer, she successfully convinced Sustainable Nantucket's board that the nonprofit needed an environmental arm focused on the island's natural issues. Whelan's idea, Nantucket Green, became a subcommittee within Sustainable Nantucket aimed at environmental programs. It led to the cosponsoring of a film series with the Nantucket Atheneum called "Sense of Place II: A Film Series about Sustainability, Community & the Environment" that will run next year.

Whelan's desire for leading Sustainable Nantucket is grounded in her deep reverence for the island where she lives with her husband, Mitch Blake, and their 18-month-old daughter, Rowan.

"I love this island," said Whelan. "It's been a really special place for me and I wanted to give back. It's where I met my husband. I had my daughter here at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. I think Sustainable Nantucket's mission to preserve the many aspects of what we love about living here is really important for this community.

"Part of that is environmental, and part of it is keeping our downtown alive," she continued. "We're just growing so fast that we do need to strategize and move ahead, and I'm excited to be a part of that."

In finding Whelan, Hudson said that Sustainable Nantucket saw the executive director role evolve from the organizational work and community outreach that Silverstein performed each week attending as many town board and committee meetings as she could - into one where the director is more of a coordinator of volunteers and board members.

"I think she will be less the frontline person at the meetings, and our hope is the board will spread those responsibilities out more," said Hudson. "We see our role being more effective in dispersing information to people that care.

"She may find the right people to go to those meetings, to implement some organizational structure and some systems that will get that information out."

Sustainable Nantucket's growing community preservation efforts include the formation of the Nantucket Shellfish Association, aiding the establishment of the Nantucket Housing Office, helping the Nantucket Farmer's and Artisan's Market to sprout this fall, facilitating an agricultural commission, promoting its Think Local Buy/Hire Local campaign and now environmental initiatives. Whelan, a former fundraiser for A Safe Place, who started that organization's safety awareness walk - Taking Steps Together - was Sustainable Nantucket's natural choice for its goal of getting more people involved.

"We all felt for a long time that the organization is stronger if it doesn't have one face," said Hudson. "The key part of this transition is how we will be effective going forward."

Whelan's first day will be Jan. 1, and she is ready to move from her job as Development Coordinator at Nantucket Cottage Hospital to take the lead at Sustainable Nantucket.

"I'm absolutely thrilled, I've been dreaming about this job," she said. "I've been really excited about the idea of working for Sustainable Nantucket. Having volunteered with them for a while with Nantucket Green and getting to know some of the board members, I'm just really

excited about their mission." I