As Islanders get accustomed to the newly-built, state-of-the art YMCA in their midst, they are simultaneously getting acquainted with Julian Villegas, the senior program director there. The soft-spoken Columbian native is quickly making himself known as a warm and welcoming ambassador for the YMCA’s mission of bringing families and communities together.

Mr. Villegas is 45 but looks ten years younger, a testament to the healthy lifestyle he has promoted over the past two decades in YMCA and Jewish Community Center (JCC) institutions. The benefits of fitness are not an abstract concept to him, but rather a transformative force in his own life. Growing up in Medellin, Columbia, Mr. Villegas suffered severe asthma and endured weekly hospital visits for treatment. When he was nine years old, a perceptive doctor suggested swimming as a means to developing his lung strength.

“Swimming saved my life,” he said. “Once I started building my lungs up, my asthma started going away and I got stronger. That inspired me to become a competitive swimmer from age nine through college.”

In 1981, at age 15, he moved with his family to Malden, Mass., where he joined the swim team at the local YMCA. The welcoming spirit of the institution eased his transition to a new culture, helping him learn English and make new friends. Throughout high school and his studies in the sports medicine program at UMass-Boston, he remained active at the Malden YMCA as a lifeguard, swim instructor and waterfront director. After graduation, he began working fulltime as the Malden facility’s aquatics director.

“I’ve always worked for nonprofit organizations like the YMCA and JCC, because it’s a family type of environment and that’s what I feel most comfortable with,” he said.

Eight years at the Malden YMCA were followed by eight years as head swim coach and aquatics director at the JCC of the North Shore in Marblehead. After two years in Albuquerque, N.M., helping develop a new JCC facility from the ground up, he had a brief tenure in the for-profit world as an assistant general manager at the Boston Sports Club in Waltham; “I realized the for-profit world was all about the money, not the mission,” he said.

That’s when he landed his dream job as operations director od the YMCA in Roxbury, serving a primarily African American and Latino clientele. Just as he was gaining momentum with the job there, the recession hit. By December, 2009, Mr. Villegas and much of the staff had been laid off. In May of 2010 the Martha’s Vineyard YMCA offered him the senior program director position, and by the end of the month he had moved to the Island.

“It’s a lovely place,” he saidof his new home. “It has an incredible culture.”

Between his arrival on May 24 and the grand opening of the YMCA on June 19, he assembled an aquatics and fitness curriculum for the facility. The response from the Martha’s Vineyard community so far has been robust — an average of 440 people pass through the doors daily to work out at the gym, participate in fitness classes, meet with personal trainers, swim laps or take swim lessons. The senior water exercise classes have become so popular that two have been scheduled back-to-back to accommodate the demand.

“A lot of people are surprised how quickly we were able to put programs and services together,” he smiled.

One of Mr. Villegas’s top priorities is creating an open, welcoming spirit in the building, one that encourages people from all walks to life to participate without feeling self-conscious or hesitant. New members receive a complimentary one-hour session with a trainer in which their individual needs are assessed and an appropriate training program is prescribed. He encourages his staff to avoid gung ho, “no pain, no gain” tactics in favor of gentle, incremental workout strategies that will help people feel good about themselves and continue exercising.

“A lot of people say, ‘I’m so overweight, I can’t do it,’ and I tell them, ‘Yes, you can, just take that first step, let us guide you where you need to be, and you will see the changes.’”

This commitment to the individual is especially evident during Mr. Villegas’s work with disabled members, whom he treats with the same gentle-yet-firm training style he applies to the able-bodied membership.

“I tell them, ‘When you walk into this building, when you come to see me or any of my trainers, there is no negativity at all on your part. You are going to come as a new person, and when you get out of here, you are reborn.’”

As an example, he cites a woman with multiple sclerosis he encouraged to enter the pool.

“She said, ‘I will never swim,’ and I said, ‘Are you sure?’ She said, ‘I used to swim,’ and I said, ‘You used to swim, and you will swim again.’ Just yesterday she finished 20 laps in the pool. You see the rewards, the smile and the gratitude on people’s faces when they do this.”

Long-term goals at the YMCA include an expanded facility with an indoor track and gymnasium and a teen center. In the near-term, Mr. Villegas says Islanders can look forward to cooking classes, further development of the swim team, an expanded teen program, and much more.

Despite the demands of developing new programming while teaching 11 fitness classes a week, he remains energized by the joys of working in the organization that has played such a formative role in his own life.

“When you see a child come up and give you a hug after a great day at camp or an adult says, ‘Thank you for what you do every day,’” he said, “that is what keeps me going.”