Joe Levitch
President
Lead Locators
Biography
I've been a remodeling contractor in Boise, Idaho, for 21 years, specializing in older homes in the historic North End—many built in the early 1900s. I'm a NARI Master Certified Remodeler and have taught in NARI's Certified Remodeler certification program for five years. I grew up in Berkeley, California, where my father was an architect and remodeling contractor; I worked alongside him and my three brothers through high school. Before returning full-time to remodeling, I spent most of my adult life as a Flight Paramedic and also ran a restaurant for many years. My focus on lead-safe renovation began in 2012, after an EPA audit of my RRP practices. That led me to found Lead Locators, where I became a Lead Inspector and Lead Risk Assessor through UNLV and helped other contractors navigate RRP compliance. When 3M discontinued the lead-testing swab in 2023, I went looking for a better alternative and found a small Dutch company that had developed a highly sensitive lead test originally used in solar panel production. I'm now the U.S. representative for that product, Lumetallix, and I currently sit on ASTM's committee revising the lead-paint sampling standard. I bring decades of hands-on RRP experience to this work, and I'm looking forward to being part of the conversation on healthy housing.