Near Northwest Neighborhood Community Center
1013 Portage Ave, South Bend, IN 46616

The Eck Institute for Global Health is proud to host Ruth Ann Norton, President and CEO of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, for a community forum on November 13, 2017 at the Near Northwest Neighborhood Community Center. The talk will focus on best practices from around the country in ending the toxic legacy of lead poisoning, strategies to end lead poisoning in 5 years, including national, statewide, local, and community-level actions, and innovative funding opportunities. 

Ruth Ann Norton is an expert on health-based housing program design. Ms. Norton leads GHHI's ground breaking work in over 30 US cities that uses housing as a platform for improved health, economic and social outcomes. The architect of Maryland's 98% reduction in childhood lead poisoning, she has led the development of numerous action plans including GHHI's 5 year national Strategic Plan to End Lead Poisoning - A Blueprint for Action (2016) and a lead elimination plan for New Jersey (2017). She has authored 35 pieces of healthy housing legislation, served as a contributor to similar strategic plans for Pew Charitable Trust and the Center for Healthy Housing. Ms. Norton has crafted numerous policy initiatives with a focus on advancing the role of the Medicaid, energy efficiency, education and philanthropic sectors as investors in healthy housing. An economist by training, Ms. Norton led GHHI to establish its cost benefit analysis practice to demonstrate the business case for scaling interventions that create healthy, safe, and energy efficient housing. Honored by the Maryland AAP with its advocacy award, Ms. Norton served as a liaison for the CDC Advisory Committee on Lead Poisoning Prevention and was selected a Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader and Weinberg Foundation Fellow.