Ruth Ann Norton, President & CEO of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, joined the organization in 1993 and has led its development into one of the nation’s most effective and foremost authorities on healthy housing and its impact on the social determinants of health. GHHI is dedicated to addressing the social determinants of health and racial equity through healthy housing. An expert on lead poisoning prevention, healthy housing and the intersection of climate, energy and health, Ruth Ann directs GHHI’s national strategy, policy framework and services to integrate climate, healthcare and healthy housing as a platform for improved health, economic, educational and social outcomes for low-income communities. Ms. Norton serves as a member of: the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC), the Maryland Clean Energy Center Board of Directors, the National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (NLAPH), the National Council of State Housing Agencies’ National Advisory Group, the Ohio Asthma Council, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center For Population Health Information Technology Advisory Board. She is Chair of the Maryland Lead Poisoning Prevention Commission and is also a federally appointed Liaison Member to the CDC’s Lead Exposure and Prevention Advisory Committee (LEPAC). She broadened the organization’s mission by designing the GHHI comprehensive model in 2009 in partnership with HUD and CDC. GHHI works in 75 partner jurisdictions nationally implementing a model built on a framework of cross-sector collaboration that integrates lead hazard reduction, healthy homes and energy efficiency interventions. Ms. Norton has been at the forefront in building the business case for healthcare investments in housing. In 2021, led the development of the nation’s largest hospital community benefits investment in healthy housing and has established a partnership with healthcare to fund a 7,000, 7 City SDOH/Healthy Housing demonstration project. Through its current feasibility and development work with healthcare partners and jurisdictions nationally, she heads a GHHI technical assistance team that is creating sustainable models for Medicaid reimbursement for preventive asthma and household injury services. The architect of the State of Maryland’s 99% reduction in childhood lead poisoning, Ms. Norton has developed over 49 pieces of successful healthy housing legislation that focus on reducing health and racial disparities and mitigating climate change. As part of her leadership on the non-energy benefits of energy efficiency, she is a leading voice in articulating the significant health, social and climate benefits of weatherization investments. She is a member of EEFA and has authored several publications on energy equity including the recent Leading with Equity and Justice in the Clean Energy Transition. Ms. Norton is currently spearheading GHHI’s work in the development and implementation of decarbonization, electrification and climate change mitigation services for low income households. Ms. Norton oversees GHHI’s research team on a NASA funded Equity and Environmental Justice grant that is researching and conducting data analysis on climate change impacts on urban environments in the State of New York in partnership with Yale University as part of the Identifying Temperature Disparities, Energy Insecurities and Social Vulnerability for Energy Justice in New York State Project. She lead the organization’s partnership with DOE and NASCSP on the WAP Weatherization Plus Health national initiative to improve safe practices and foster the greater integration of weatherization and healthy homes interventions. In 2010, she drafted the Identified Barriers and Opportunities to Make Housing Green and Healthy Through Weatherization Report for the White House that highlighted the need to reduce WAP Program deferral rates and detailed the opportunities for greater cross sector collaboration. Ms. Norton is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader, a Weinberg Foundation Fellow, a WE ACT Environmental and Social Justice awardee, and received the Tony Woods Award for Excellence from the Building Performance Industry in 2016 for her efforts to integrate energy efficiency upgrades with healthy homes interventions on a national scale. Under her leadership, GHHI has been awarded the HUD Secretary’s Award for Healthy Homes and the EPA’s National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management Hall of Fame for its innovative programs.