Mona (now known as Mona Hanna) Hanna-Attisha

Born: 1976

Country of Birth: United Kingdom

Nationality: Arab-American

Ethnicity: Arab

University of Michigan BS 1998 Resource Ecology & Management/Environmental Health & Masters in Public Health 2008 Health Management & Policy; Michigan State University MD 2002

"“to find your passion. Find your thing. For me, it’s kids. That is my why. That is my North Star. That is why I went to school forever. Why I wrote a book. Why I’m here.” (gold-foundation.org); “It’s not easy being a whistleblower. But I quickly realized this fight has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with my kids. Every number in my research was not just a number. It was a child.” (gold-foundation.org); "Physicians need to be trained to see symptoms of the larger structural problems that will bedevil a child’s health and well-being more than a simple cold ever could,” Dr. Hanna-Attisha said. “When we know about the child’s environment, we can treat these kids in the best, most holistic way, which will leave them with much more than just a prescription for amoxicillin.”(gold-foundation.org); "To understand me as a doctor and to understand what I did and do in Flint, you have to understand me as a person and where I came from,” said Dr. Hanna-Attisha. “That immigrant perspective defines who I am and how I see the world, and how I practice as a physician.” (gold-foundation.org); "If I can inspire or motivate a future generation of strong women who are ethical and who are stubborn and who are persistent and who care about their community, that would be worth it," she said. ( mlive.com); “If history informs action and words shape thinking – preserving the truth of the lived experience is critical for our communities,” Hanna-Attisha says. “Their stories of resilience and triumph show how an empowered community can demand change. When science and community come together and speak truth to power– we feel heard, seen, and thrive – and our eyes open to how society should be – a place where resilience is built into the fabric of our nation rather than demanded of our most vulnerable.” (preservationweek.org); " When I'm not home, (my children) will tell you that Mom's not home, she's with our 6,000 siblings. My Flint kids are no different than my children. And that's what grounds me to this day. It is their promise, their potential." (usatoday.com); “As much as the story of Flint is the story of crime committed with absolute indifference to some of the most vulnerable people in our country, it is also the story of all of us, and that is why I am here today. It is about who we are and who we want to be,” Hanna-Attisha said. “It is a story of medicine leaving the comfort zone of our hospitals, our classrooms, our clinics, and entering communities.” (harvardmagazine.com); "There’s been many books on Flint. There will continue to be many books on Flint. But this is a firsthand, fast-paced account of what happened through my eyes. And another reason I wrote this book is it’s not just about Flint. It’s very much about me and how I got to be in Flint and how I came here, and I think that became an even more important part of the story because that’s the perspective of how I see the world. This is the lens that I see and how I was raised and that immigrant story I think got even more elevated, especially with our current political climate. I came to this country for what all immigrants come — for freedom, for democracy, for opportunity, for the American Dream. And I wake up absolutely lucky every single day to be in this country, but also acutely aware of what injustice can be and what people in power can do to vulnerable populations. So it was that kind of milieu of my childhood that made me go into medicine, that made me be in Flint, that made me serve my community no matter where it can be." (seenthemagazine.com); "There are lots of villains in this story [the Flint water crisis]. A disaster of this scale does not happen completely by accident. Many people stopped caring about Flint and Flint's kids. Many people looked the other way. People in power made tragic and terrible choices — then collectively and ineptly tried to cover up their mistakes. While charges have been brought against some of the individuals who were culpable, the real villains are harder to see. Because the real villains live underneath the behavior and drive it. The real villains are the ongoing effects of racism, inequality, greed, anti-intellectualism, and even laissez-faire neoliberal capitalism." (npr.org);"

— Mona (now known as Mona Hanna) Hanna-Attisha

Field of Study: Pediatrics

Institution/Corporation: Michigan State University; Hurley Children’s Hospital

Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: American University of Beirut; Member: Michigan Board of Directors for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 2012); Public Health Code Advisory Committee (2013); Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee (2015); Michigan Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board (2015); Child Lead Exposure Elimination Commission (2017); Gold Humanism Honor Society; American Medical Association (2018); American Public Health Association (2017); Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (2011); Academic Pediatric Association (2009); Association of Pediatric Program Directors (2009-2018); American Academic of Pediatrics, Michigan Chapter (2002); American Academy of Pediatrics (2002); Physicians for Social Responsibility (1998); National Arab American Medical Association (1998); Health Care Without Harm (2000-2002); Association of American Medical Colleges (2000-2002); American Medical Student Association (2000-2002)

Awards: Disobedience Award, MIT Media Lab; 22nd Heinz Award for Public Policy; 2018 Michigan Women's Hall of Fame; 2019 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare; 2020 Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service, Arab American Institute Foundation; 2020 Changemakers for Children's Health Award, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals; 2020 41st Telly Award; 2020 Fries Prize for Improving Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation; 2020 Scroll for Merit Award, National Medical Association; 2020 100 Women of the Century, USA Today; 2021 named 1 of 32 of the Region's Most Influential People of Color, Madison365 Midwest Power Brokers; 2021 Detroit Duchess Award, Detroit Duchess Society; 2021 Environmental Hero Award, Healthcare Without Harm; 2021 James Shea Award, National Association of Geoscience Teachers; 2021 named to 100 Most Influential Women, Crain's Detroit Business; 2022 Excellence in Instruction Award, Michigan State University & Hurley Children's Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative; 2022 John P. McGovern Award, Medical Library Association; 2022 Inaugural Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility, Lown Institute; 2022 Inaugural Social Justice Medicine in Action Award - The Blue Flame, Columbia University Postbac Premed Student Council, Social Justice Medicine Club; 2024 National Humanism in Medicine Medal from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation; 2016 named to Time magazines 100 Most Influential People List; 2016 Politico 50; 2016 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling; 2016 James C Goodall Freedom of Expression Award, PEN American Center; 2015 William B. Weill Jr MD Endowed Distinguished Pediatric Faculty Award, Michigan state University; named 1 of the 100 Outstanding Young Americans; Michiganian of the Year, Detroit News; Rose Nader Award for Arab American activism, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; Champion of Justice, Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services; 2016 named a Union of Concerned Scientists 2016 Got Science? Champion; 2020 Woman of the Century, USA Today; 2025 Woman if the Year, USA Today;

Achievements: 2015 1st to alert citizens about the excessively high levels of lead in Detroit drinking water; her new initiative (RX Kids) gives $1,500 to parents of newborns then $500 monthly for the 1st year to cover necessary expenses; wrote "What the Eyes Don't See" 2018; 2016 founding director of the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative;