The whistleblowing doctor that informed the world of elevated lead levels in children’s blood in Flint amid the water crisis has been nominated for a prestigious recognition.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Hurley Medical Center and assistant professor of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, has been nominated for Time Maganize’s 100 most influential people list.
“The pediatrician’s research confirmed that children in Flint, Mich. had unsafe levels of lead in their blood from contaminated water,” reads the nomination for Hanna-Attisha on Time’s website.
Hanna-Attisha was recently honored with the 2016 PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award and Humanitarian of the Year by the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce.
The Time 100 list has included names such as late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, Pope Francis, activist Malala Yousafzai, actor George Clooney, talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and President Barack Obama.
Source: Robert Acosta, “Flint doctor among nominees for Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people“, MLive, March 24, 2016.
First generation Iraqi immigrant and Detroit-raised pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha is the whistleblower who exposed the dangerous levels of lead in Flint, Michigan’s drinking water after testing blood lead levels in its children. Mona announced her research findings to the national press and then took further action, including founding the Flint Child Health and Development Fund, which has raised millions of dollars to date. She is director of the pediatrics residency at the Hurley Medical Center and an assistant professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, where she leads Hurley Children’s Hospital Public Health Initiative, an innovative program that provides the public health tools to advocate for Flint’s children’s healthy development. In 2016, TIME Magazine named Mona one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
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