Nancy Halpern Ibrahim ’80, M.P.H. ’93

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Nancy Halpern Ibrahim has led Esperanza Community Housing Corporation as the executive director since November 2006. Esperanza Community Housing Corporation is a nationally-recognized nonprofit founded in 1989 that empowers the hardworking, low-income families of South Central L.A. to build healthier lives for themselves. With a holistic approach that includes housing, health, education and employment, Esperanza partners with residents and other organizations to fight the interlocking problems of poverty. She joined Esperanza in 1995 as the founding Director of Health Programs and designed Esperanza’s model Community Health Promoters Program, which has graduated 438 bilingual Community Health Promoters over the past 19 years. As executive director, she leads a staff of 30, addressing five major program areas: affordable housing, health, environmental justice, economic development, and art and culture. Ibrahim’s efforts have been central to pioneering environmental health strategies in the region. Esperanza’s Community Health Promoters programs have engendered pioneering community health initiatives such as the South Los Angeles Healthy Homes Project, Better Neighborhood/Same Neighbors, the People Not Pozos campaign that struggles against oil and gas extraction activities in residential neighborhoods, and the South Los Angeles Health and Human Rights Coalition.