Life's work: Jill Robie, new director of the Island's YMCA
By Amelia Smith
Published: November 25, 2009
Jill Robie is an athletic, energetic woman who has worked with the YMCA nationally for her entire adult life. She made her first visit to Martha's Vineyard on Labor Day weekend this year, to interview for the position of interim executive director of the Y of Martha's Vineyard. She says she felt a strong personal connection to the Vineyard through her father, who had spent summers here in the 1930s.
Jill Robie, director of the YMCA of Martha's Vineyard, brings to the Island many years of experience with other YMCA's. Photo by Ralph Stewart The youngest of four children, Ms. Robie grew up on the coast of Connecticut. She often went sailing with her parents around southern New England and might have rowed ashore for provisions here when she was young, but she has no definite recollection of the Vineyard from those possible visits in the 1970s.
"My father passed away three years ago," Ms. Robie says, "and when I got the call about this job, I thought, 'My father would be very proud that my career with the YMCA took me here.' He was really supportive of my career, and I learned a lot about what I do from him. He loved this place."
Ms. Robie didn't grow up dreaming of becoming a YMCA administrator, but she settled on her career through a natural progression of interests, which quickly grew into leadership positions in the Y. "I grew up close to New York, and when I went to college I wanted to be a professional ballet dancer," she says. "I developed some foot problems which led to surgery, and the doctors said that I had to give up ballet."
Instead of ballet, Ms. Robie began to teach aerobics classes as a way to make money for college. "It was the mid-1980s," she says. "I taught classes at corporations and wherever I could move furniture to get a space."
Later, Ms. Robie married and moved to Alabama, where she got a job as the fitness director for the YMCA of Metropolitan Mobile. "That was my first full-time job, and I've been with the Y ever since," she says. "I started as a program director, then worked my way up to get more involved in administration and leadership. I'm kind of a visionary person. I had ideas about what I'd like to do, special events and that kind of thing, so I had to give leadership to develop those ideas. I found that I got a lot of satisfaction out of that role."
Ms. Robie took advantage of the Y's executive leadership training programs, which helped her to develop skills and learn about the business side of running a large, complex nonprofit organization. She now volunteers in that same program, teaching management courses to others who are making their careers in the YMCA.
