Norma Geller (SAS ‘91)

Norma Geller (SAS ‘91), a CWRU alumna and community volunteer dedicated to civil service and social justice throughout Northeast Ohio, received the 2020 Newton D. Baker Distinguished Service Award. For many years, Geller volunteered at University Hospitals (UH) and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. Along with her late husband, she made the lead gift for Albert and Norma Geller Hillel Student Center, a community destination open to the public that includes classrooms, lounges and a popular restaurant. Geller also created cancer patient transportation funds at UH and Cleveland Clinic, serves as a board advocate with the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, created the Geller Designated Professorship in Ovarian Cancer Research at CWRU School of Medicine, established The Norma C. and Albert I. Geller Fund to provide an annual award at graduation to a student who has done significant work in child abuse prevention and the Social Justice Fund at B’nai Jeshurun Congregation to work with those experiencing homelessness and refugees and advocate for racial and environmental justice, and continues to work with current students of her undergraduate alma mater John Carroll University to provide food and friendship to the homeless in Cleveland through the Labre Project.