Rebecca Haag of Chilmark was honored last weekend with the Wells College Alumnae Award, a prestigious annual award that recognizes service to the community and world at large.

Ms. Haag, Wells College class of 1974, and Fiona Morgan Fein, class of 1965, both received the award during a festive reunion weekend in Aurora, N.Y. This year also marks the 150th anniversary for the small liberal arts college situated on the eastern shore of Lake Cayuga.

Ms. Haag was recognized for her wide-ranging work in social justice that has spanned more than two decades, beginning in Boston and more recently on the Vineyard, where she is executive director of the Island Grown Initiative.

She joined the board of directors of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts in 1996 and was appointed executive director in 2003. In 2006, the boards of the AAC and the AIDS Action Council appointed her as executive director of both organizations. She later merged the two organizations to form AIDS United, and also spearheaded a coalition that led to the first coordinated national AIDS strategy for the United States.

Ms. Haag took over IGI two years ago, where she has turned her attention to issues of food equity and stability for Vineyard residents.

“Social change, any change is really about the people it impacts,” she said during remarks in a special convocation ceremony at the college last Saturday. “In this era of divisiveness and name calling, let us be the ones who change the conversation.”