NORTHAMPTON — The end of June marked the end of a more than 30-year career for someone who needs hardly any introduction to the people of Paradise City. But for those who don’t know her, Jenny Fleming-Ives, the deeply religious reproductive health specialist at Tapestry Health, is stepping out from behind her desk after 33 years in the role.

The self-described daughter of the 60s, addicted to peace, empathy and compassion, is handing on the torch, “or stethoscope or whatever,” to the next generation to fight for sexual liberty — which has been the mission of Tapestry since its founding in 1973 after the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized abortion that same year.

“I’m excited about not having to live by the clock so much, and having time to spend with my family,” she said, speaking in her office just days before her last at Tapestry, and whose first day was in 1993. “I have four daughters and they all have partners, and I have several grandchildren at various levels of college I will be visiting with.”

But while her work may be ending, work that earned her recognition by the mayor of Northampton and a citation from the state Senate, her mission doesn’t.

Speaking of her and her husband, Peter Ives, she said, “We continue to work on peace and social justice, which will never go, which you never retire from.”

Born in China to progressive Christian missionaries, she married Ives, a man with a similar background and who served as the pastor of the First Churches in Northampton until 2010.

“I was brought up in Buddhist countries, in communities where all faiths were acknowledged. I went to school in a Buddhist, Muslim community — and that’s the world I came into, doing service to the world,” said Fleming-Ives.

The couple were on the front lines of Northampton’s LGBTQ movement, and participated in the earliest Pride parades in the city.

Over the course of her career she has seen Tapestry “widening its arc of care.”

“There was nothing like Planned Parenthood west of Worcester,” she said, which led to the founding of Tapestry under the name of the “Family Planning Council of Massachusetts.”

But, all puns intended, she explained how Tapestry’s resources increased and were woven together, well, “like a tapestry,” she said.

“We’ve expanded tremendously these past years,” said Fleming-Ives, explaining how Tapestry initially focused on pregnancy tests and birth control, but has swelled to encompass gender-affirming care, medication, abortions and hormone therapy for menopausal women. The organization also has new resources like a mobile van.

And the evolution of care never stops.

In the last week of her career, a representative from Gilead informed her that an injection would be available for HIV prevention — a milestone in HIV care.

“Some 30 years ago we were doing innovative things at Tapestry by offering counseling and testing for HIV without any treatment at that point. Tapestry was sort of on the forefront of offering those services, and now to have come full arc,” she said.

Speaking of the new injection, she said, “This is revolutionary for a lot of people because it’s a twice a year injection and that’s perfect.”

Among other recent developments, Fleming-Ives is happy she was instrumental in negotiating a deal for living wages for Tapestry employees — one of the most recent accomplishments she walks out the door with.

A calling

Fleming-Ives says the life she has built wasn’t merely a career, but a calling from a higher source.

“There’s a quote that I think is attributed to Aristotle, although I don’t think he ever said it, but he said you know where your talents lie and the world’s needs cross — there is your vocation,” said Fleming-Ives. “So I have always felt my career was a vocation as well as a career, which has been a fantastic way to have a meaningful life.”

But she is fully aware that as she leaves her office, the world is different than when she first took the role as a reproductive health specialist.

“I think what disturbs us the most,” she said about herself and her husband, “is the attack on compassion and empathy, both within the religious community and within the fabric of the community itself.”

But fear not, because her legacy has inspired the future of those on the front lines to carry forward the torch of the spirit of the 60s.

“There are a bunch of people who have worked with her in positions like ours, as counselors, who have then gone on to work in the medical field,” said Izzi Bledsoe, a health counselor who works alongside Fleming-Ives in the Northampton Tapestry location.

“And even just out and about in the community, in Northampton, everyone will be like, ‘Jenny, Jenny!’ — she’s known everywhere, and for a good reason, because she provides amazing care and support for everybody, staff and patients alike,” she said, calling Fleming-Ives the “perfect lady.”

But the perfect lady is not without her quirks.

Among them, she is loud.

“Every morning she is yelling good morning from the back,” Bledsoe said — but not complaining, and added that she will miss those greetings.

“You can hear her coming from anywhere in the clinic, but like yeah, she’s the most energetic provider I’ve ever seen. She never runs out of steam. She’ll always work at 100% to match what a patient needs from her,” said Bledsoe.

Bledsoe’s coworker and fellow health counselor Lauren Duhr said that Fleming-Ives, “always comes in in her cute, coordinated outfits.”

“I feel like one of the luckiest parts of this job is having gotten to work with her,” said Duhr. “It’s just been so crazy this past month, because she’s had so many clients that have been seeing her for 30 years, coming in to say she has changed their life.”

“I’ve been here for 13 years and there’s always something new,” said Liliana “Lily” Bonilla, the health services manager of Tapestry in Northampton. “It’s just so great to work with her — the information, the teamwork.”

Outside of the office, religion is a recharge for her: meditation, prayer, nature, tending her garden and movies.

“I didn’t grow up with television, but I went to a lot of movies as a kid,” said Fleming-Ives, whose favorite film may be “Chariots of Fire,” based on the 1924 Olympics.

“It’s my favorite probably because it is about a Scot, and he’s running on the beach in St. Andrews” — the same country and place her father went to teach, and where she attended college, she said.

As she leaves, she gives a message to the future generation — keep studying, think critically.

“Given that we have Robert F. Kennedy [Jr.] in the seat he’s in as secretary of Health and Human services, we’re losing sight of science,” she said. “What I want folks to not lose sight of is evidence-based research that will improve care for people in the future.”