In partnership with Georgetown University’s Global Cities Initiative, IWBI convenes leaders across public health, policy and industry to advance solutions for indoor air quality, brain health, schools, resilient communities and national security.
With nearly 30 confirmed speakers, the event features Harvard healthy building expert Dr. Joseph Allen and leaders from Georgetown University, ARPA-H, Intercept Fund, CannonDesign, the American Institute of Architects, Trane Technologies, HKS, SafeTraces, AAFA, Citadel EHS, Johnson Controls, Lutron Electronics, Attune and other organizations advancing healthier buildings.
NEW YORK, August 27, 2026 /3BL/ – As momentum accelerates around healthy indoor air, healthier schools and the role buildings play in supporting human health and resilience, the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), in partnership with Georgetown University’s Global Cities Initiative, will host its third annual Healthy Building Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, September 29.
Taking place at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy on its Capitol Campus, the full-day event will bring together policymakers, public health experts, researchers, business leaders and building professionals to explore how a new generation of policies can transform buildings into stronger assets for health, economic performance and community resilience.
“We are entering a new era for healthy buildings, defined not only by what the science tells us, but by what the market demands and what communities increasingly expect,” said IWBI President and CEO Rachel Hodgdon. “The wave of momentum we’re seeing is a unique opportunity to turn that momentum into policies that help accelerate healthier buildings, strengthen indoor air quality, support brain health and longevity and elevate buildings at critical assets for national security and biosecurity.”
Opening plenary speaker Dr. Joseph Allen, Director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of Healthy Buildings, will kick off the event in a fireside chat exploring how buildings influence human health, productivity and where we need to go next with policy, research and practice.
Additional discussions will explore how cities can advance healthier buildings and infrastructure, how public and private investment can accelerate progress and how policymakers can connect building performance more directly to measurable health and community outcomes.
“This summit convenes thought leaders who recognize that healthy building policies at all levels of government are a cornerstone for thriving communities,” said Uwe S. Brandes, professor and director of Georgetown University’s Global Cities Initiative. “How do we best align policy, planning and investment around this shared imperative?”
Among the nearly 30 speakers are:
- Joseph G. Allen, Director, Healthy Buildings Program and Professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Yiselle Santos Rivera, the American Institute of Architects, President-Elect
- Al Bugazia, MD, Deputy Director Chief Medical Officer, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, HHS
- Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, IWBI
- Jason Mazzella, Head of Air Cleaning Technologies, Intercept Fund
- Shantee Blain, Principal and DC Office Director, HKS
- Eric Corey Freed, Principal and Sustainability Director, CannonDesign
- Jenna Riemenschneider, Vice President of Advocacy & Policy, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
- Scott Tew, Global Head of Sustainability Strategy, Trane Technologies
- Rebecca Katz, Professor and Director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security, Georgetown University
- Erik Malmstrom, CEO, SafeTraces
- Julie Wojnowski, Practice Leader, ESG & Sustainability, Citadel EHS
- Jason Schwartz, DC Experience Center Lead, Lutron Electronics
- Serene Almomen, CEO and Co-Founder, Attune
- Christopher King, Dean, School of Health, Georgetown University
- Georgia Lagoudas, Senior Fellow and Faculty, Pandemic Center at Brown University’s School of Public Health
- Rick Fedrizzi, Executive Chairman, IWBI
- Marwa Zaatari, Chief Engineer, Poppy
- Matthew Biel, Director, Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities and Marriott Endowed Chair of Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health, Georgetown University Medical Center
- Whitney Austin Gray, SVP, Research, IWBI
- Uwe Brandes, Professor, Director of the Urban & Regional Planning Program and Director of the Georgetown Global Cities Initiative, Georgetown University
- Mark Lessons, Vice President and Chief Sustainability and External Relations Officer, Johnson Controls
- Jack Noonan, SVP and Head of Asia Pacific, IWBI
- Bill Bridge, CEO, Global Green
- Jason Hartke, EVP, External Affairs and Global Advocacy, IWBI
The Summit will focus on critical topics and timely issues impacting the built environment including indoor air quality, the evidence-based return on investment (ROI) of healthy buildings, as well as the influence of legislation on market transformation. Other key topics include access to healthy environments, the leadership role of cities and states, and the contribution of professional organizations and technical standards in advancing healthy building initiatives.
The Summit is supported by leading companies committed to advancing health in buildings, including event sponsors Trane Technologies, SafeTraces, Citadel EHS and AtmosAir. IWBI global sponsors supporting the event include Attune, Daikin, Cisco, Johnson Controls and Lutron.
Media Partners include FacilitiesNet and BUILDINGS magazine. Supporting Organizations include the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), Global Green, Green Building Initiative, Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), ISSA – Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association, National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), ASHRAE, National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and International Interior Design Association (IIDA).
“The healthy buildings movement is reaching an inflection moment. More leaders are organizing, collaborating and taking action together, amplifying one another’s efforts, reaching more people and building more momentum that grows stronger with every new partnership, every new milestone, and, of course, every new policy,” said Jason Hartke, Executive Vice President, External Affairs and Global Advocacy, IWBI. “Now in its third year, the Healthy Building Policy Summit has become the definitive gathering where this movement comes to explore and advance the policy solutions that will power its next chapter.”
“The evidence increasingly shows that buildings influence our lives in more ways than most of us realize. They shape how we think, learn, work and age,” said Whitney Austin Gray, Senior Vice President, Research, IWBI. “As a growing body of research links healthy buildings to improved brain health, productivity, longevity and resilience, it is giving policymakers a stronger foundation for advancing solutions. Better building policy can deliver measurable returns for people, organizations and communities.”
What Our Supporters are Saying
“Organizations around the world are embracing opportunities to support human health and improve the efficiency and operational performance of their buildings,” said Scott Tew, Global Head and VP, Sustainability Strategy and the Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, Trane Technologies. “The Healthy Building Policy Summit provides an important forum for leaders to have the critical conversations, identify shared priorities and build momentum toward stronger, more resilient organizations, creating a healthier and more sustainable future.”
“How we think about healthy buildings and the air we breathe indoors is fundamentally a public health issue, but it is also critical to the future of national security and biosecurity,” said Erik Malmstrom, CEO, SafeTraces. “The Healthy Building Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. is the leading forum where these essential conversations happen, ensuring policymakers recognize both the considerable health benefits of better indoor air and the urgency of positioning our buildings on the front lines of a national biosecurity strategy.”
“Protecting people inside buildings requires policies grounded in science, informed by real-world conditions and designed for effective implementation,” said Julie Wojnowski, Practice Leader, ESG & Sustainability, Citadel EHS. “By bringing environmental health and safety expertise into the conversation, the Healthy Building Policy Summit helps bridge the gap between policy goals and on-the-ground implementation, giving organizations clearer pathways to manage risk and create healthier indoor environments.”
“The tools to better understand, manage and improve indoor air quality are advancing rapidly, but technology alone cannot transform the market,” said Tony Abate, Chief Technology Officer, Atmos Air. “We are excited to support the Healthy Building Policy Summit because it brings together leaders from the built environment, public health and government to shape the policies, standards and incentives needed to accelerate progress toward healthier indoor air, which helps improve health, productivity and organizational performance.”
For more information and to register for the event, visit IWBI’s Summit registration page. WELL’s accelerating global reach reflects the growing momentum for policies that prioritize healthier spaces worldwide. Global adoption of the WELL Building Standard (WELL) has grown 12-fold since 2020, now representing nearly 6.5 billion square feet of real estate, demonstrating incredible market growth spanning nearly 100,000 locations across 138 countries that are realizing the positive impacts of people-first places.
About the International WELL Building Institute
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is a public benefit corporation and the global authority for transforming health and well-being in buildings, organizations and communities. In pursuit of its public-health mission, IWBI mobilizes its community through the development and administration of the WELL Building Standard (WELL), WELL for residential, WELL Community Standard, its WELL ratings and management of the WELL AP credential. IWBI also translates research into practice, develops educational resources and advocates for policies that promote people-first places for everyone, everywhere. More information on WELL can be found here.
International WELL Building Institute, IWBI, the WELL Building Standard, WELL v2, WELL Certified, WELL AP, WELL EP, WELL Score, The WELL Conference, We Are WELL, the WELL Community Standard, WELL Health-Safety Rated, WELL Performance Rated, WELL Equity Rated, WELL Equity, WELL Coworking Rated, WELL Residence, Works with WELL, WELL and others, and their related logos are trademarks or certification marks of International WELL Building Institute pbc in the United States and other countries.
About Georgetown University’s Global Cities Initiative
The Georgetown Global Cities Initiative reaches across the entire University community to explore cross-cutting themes related to urbanization. Through this dialogue, Georgetown aims to align more than 60 faculty scholars and practitioners engaged in urban research who are not otherwise linked through their traditional academic disciplines. The Initiative matches Georgetown’s international research networks with our civic role as a leading local anchor institution in Washington, DC. Research themes include social equity, rapid urbanization, city diplomacy; urban governance frameworks; social entrepreneurship; public health; technology, data and ethics; and changing environmental resources. We invite you to join us in dialogue as we engage one of the most important global trends in the 21st Century.
Media Contacts:
media@wellcertified.com
globalcities@georgetown.edu
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