Natalie Gordon
 Trained as a social worker, Dr. Gordon’s activities focus on the links between older people, housing, long-term care and mental health. She served for many years at the Jewish Home and Hospital directing community programs and social services, and while there she expanded the role of the Nursing Home in delivering health programs to aging seniors – both rehabilitative and long-term care.
Gordon was part of the team which created the first Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) program at the lLGWU Penn South cooperative in the early 1960s. She pioneered the NORC model that brings together a social worker, the housing management, and resident senior citizens to produce a wide array of programs and support services for those over 60 years old. There are now 34 such NORC programs in New York City.
As the NORC program took off, Natalie trained a cadre of competent, caring social workers who fanned out across the city. As president of B’Nai B’rith Housing in Flushing, Queens she expanded the idea of residential housing that supports seniors’ independent lifestyle but provides assistance close at hand.
Gordon served on the national board of AARP and then worked in the international community at the United Nations where she introduced issues of aging and women to the agenda. She is a Fellow in the Social Work section of the New York Academy of Medicine. She remains an “old lefty,” still savoring her role in the Women’s Strike for Peace and a host of other progressive activities over the years.
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Interview
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