In a 2017 New York Times op-ed, pediatrician and public health advocate Dr. Mona Hanna looked back on her first years in America: “As a young immigrant, I may have been scared, and my school lunches looked and smelled different (no one knew what hummus or falafel was back then), but I was embraced in the suburban Detroit community where I grew up as one of the few brown kids.” Commonly known as Dr. Mona and formerly known as Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, she would go on to earn BS and MPH degrees from the University of Michigan and an MD from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, and now serves as associate dean for public health and C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health.
In 2015, as a pediatrician in Flint, Michigan, Dr. Mona discovered that the city’s water supply was poisoned with lead, a neurotoxin that causes irreversible brain damage. After she reported her results, state officials refuted her findings, calling her science “faulty” and accusing her of “creating hysteria.” But she kept the pressure on — and, finally, the authorities reversed course, acknowledging the ongoing public health disaster that had traumatized Flint, a city with 10,000 children. Working with the community, including parents, clergy, journalists, and scientists, Dr. Mona led efforts to “make sure that the American dream” was still a possibility for the children of Flint. As she wrote in the Times, they aimed to mitigate the harm caused by the city’s water crisis with “a model public health program of family support, home visits, early education, school health services, nutrition, health care access, and more.”
For her actions in uncovering the Flint water crisis and spearheading the recovery, Dr. Mona received the PEN America Freedom of Expression Courage Award. She was also named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and recognized as one of USA Today’s Women of the Century.
Updated: August 2024
