GREENFIELD — After 14 years at the helm of Community Action Pioneer Valley, Executive Director Clare Higgins is retiring this summer.

Reflecting on her years of service at the nonprofit antipoverty agency, Higgins, 70, of Northampton, said she is incredibly grateful for the opportunities she has had to make a difference over the years.

“I grew up in a family where public service was a value and being involved in the community was a value, and I think I’ve lived up to that expectation of my parents,” Higgins said Thursday afternoon. “I now understand why they saw that as a value, because it actually is as rewarding as anything can be to help make life better for your community in whatever way, big or small.”

Higgins said she doesn’t have any big plans for retirement, and she hopes to enjoy a vacation and take a break.

“I’m just planning on taking a breath, but who knows, maybe I’ll get a dog,” she said. “I’ve been working for many years and feel like I need to stop working.”

For Higgins, the retirement will mark the end of decades spent in local government and advocating for the needs of community members. Before her time at Community Action, Higgins was mayor of Northampton from 2000 to 2011, the second woman and the first openly lesbian woman to hold that position.

Her tenure as mayor included establishing a high bond rating for the city, closure of the Northampton landfill and creating more affordable housing in the city, a key tenet of her agenda.

“She was all about affordable housing before it was cool,” said Bill Dwight, who served as City Council president during Higgins’ time as mayor. “The current job she’s in that she’s retiring from is in perfect sync with her philosophy.”

Dwight credited Higgins’ good sense of humor as contributing to her ability to last in political office. He recalled one time during a council meeting where, after he had spoken at length about a particular topic, Higgins passed him a written note that simply read, “Stop.” Dwight also said Higgins would refer to him as a “councilor in search of a period,” due to his habit of pontificating on various issues.

“People think of the dramas and behaviors you see today, but that actually isn’t new. There were similar conflicts back then,” Dwight said of city politics. “Clare navigated that quite well. She was an excellent firewall, she could absorb the heat.”

“She has the ability to put big systemic problems into concrete terms and help our elected officials understand what their financially vulnerable constituents face, and what they need,” Charity Day, president of Community Action Pioneer Valley’s board of directors, said in a statement. “She has a deep understanding of how poverty affects a community and what is required to make change.”

Throughout Higgins’ tenure, Community Action Pioneer Valley has grown to manage 40 programs across Franklin and Hampshire counties, reaching as many as 28,000 people who need assistance with food security, housing, energy and more. Higgins said she is proud of the growth of Community Action’s programs, including the early education program, the energy assistance program and the Family Center.

“Clare has long been my teacher and continues to set an example to me of life well-lived,” state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, said in a statement. “News of her retirement is nothing short of seismic. Her service at Community Action, as well as regionally and statewide, has been exemplary.”

While she did not become executive director until 2011, Higgins first became involved with Community Action in the 1990s, when she was hired as a preschool teacher. Higgins got her first taste of government when she became the staff representative for a day care and human services union, and then as the director of child care programs at Sojourn Inc. She learned more about budgeting and applying for grants, skills she put to use as mayor. She added that her experience and the network of community partners and state and federal legislators that she developed while mayor proved useful when she joined Community Action.

“I learned in real-time the impacts of public policy,” Higgins said.

Higgins will step down in the summer after the nonprofit’s board of directors selects a replacement. She said that while it will be the board’s task and she will have no involvement in selecting the next executive director, she hopes her successor is someone who is a flexible problem solver, able to adjust to the changing needs of the community, and understands and appreciates Community Action’s history and mission.

“The thing that’s great about Community Action is that we can pivot; we can move to support the community in whatever way is necessary,” Higgins explained. “I think of us as the office of economic opportunity.”

Higgins hopes her successor enjoys the job just as much as she has, noting that one of her favorite parts of the job has been the people. She loved meeting the families that Community Action has supported and working with the nonprofit’s staff, volunteers and board of directors.

“I’ve been privileged to have this job,” Higgins said. “It was a privilege to work with the people I’ve worked with and I’m very grateful for it.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com. Alexander MacDougall contributed to this story.