NURSES IN THE NEWS: That was our town’s Sharon Rohrbach at today’s White House conference with President Barack Obama. Rohrbach, founder and former CEO of the Nurses for Newborns, got a call from Civic Ventures in San Francisco yesterday inviting her to the conference.

Civic Ventures is a think tank that honors baby boomers as social innovators. Rohrbach was among five people who each received the company’s $100,000 Purpose Prize in 2007. She used the money to help expand the Shrewsbury-based program into other cities and to hire someone else to run the St. Louis office.

The White House conference Rohrbach attended highlighted effective non-profit organizations. Nurses for Newborns is considered to fit that description; its annual budget hovers around $3.6 million for more than 50 nurses who make monthly and sometimes weekly visits to teach parents how to care for their babies and to watch for signs of illness.

The service, which is designed to help prevent infant mortality, abuse and neglect, is free to the families. The agency’s funding includes money from the state, grants and private contributions.