** Hope College is among the colleges and universities across the nation that have shifted to remote instruction to help stem the spread of COVID-19, with in-person instruction scheduled to resume on Tuesday, April 14. Correspondingly, all college-sponsored events through Monday, April 13, have been canceled. For more information on the Hope College response to the virus, please visit hope.edu/coronavirus. **
Pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who was one of the leading whistleblowers in the Flint water crisis, will be featured at Hope College on Tuesday, March 24, at 9 a.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts while on tour through the 2019-20 Great Michigan Read organized by Michigan Humanities.
The event will be an on-stage interview/conversation between Hanna-Attisha and pediatrician Dr. Kathryn Davis of Holland, with an audience question-and-answer period following.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Hanna-Attisha is the author of the award-winning book “What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City,” which is the 2019-20 Great Michigan Read selection. The book tells how she, alongside a team of researchers, parents, friends and community leaders, discovered that Flint residents were being exposed to lead in their tap water, and of her battle with government officials to expose the truth about the crisis. Among other honors, the book was a 2019 Finalist for Science & Technology, Los Angeles Times Book Prize; one of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2018; a 2019 One Maryland One Book selection; a 2019 Reading Across Rhode Island selection; and a 2019 Michigan Notable Book; and received the 2018 Great Lakes Great Reads Adult Non-Fiction Award.
Hanna-Attisha is the founder and director of the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, an innovative and model public health program in Flint. Currently an associate professor of pediatrics and human development at the MSU College of Human Medicine, she has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for her role in uncovering the Flint water crisis and leading recovery efforts. She was one of the first to question if lead was leaching from the city’s water pipes after an emergency manager switched the city’s water supply to the Flint River in 2014. She also is committed to increasing literacy in Flint and elsewhere.
Michigan Humanities’ Great Michigan Read creates a statewide discussion around the humanities themes of a selected book. Through partnerships with libraries, schools, book clubs, and a wide range of other non-profit organizations, the Great Michigan Read facilitates statewide reading and programs to bridge communities around a common conversation. The 2019-20 Great Michigan Read, which began in September 2019 and will conclude in fall 2020, is supported by The National Endowment for the Humanities, Meijer Foundation, and Martin Waymire. Hanna-Attisha will be in Southwest Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 24 and 25, for a tour that also includes presentations in Grand Rapids, Benton Harbor and Kalamazoo.
Hanna-Attisha’s visit to Hope has been organized by Dr. Deborah Van Duinen, who is founding director of the NEA Big Read Lakeshore and Little Read Lakeshore as well as an associate professor of English education at Hope. The college has hosted an area Big Read program each fall for the past six years, most recently in October and November 2019. Among the local sponsors of the March 24 event are Ready for School and campus organizations including the Fostering a Community of Excellence in Science (FACES) program for first-year students who are members of underrepresented groups and interested in STEM fields; the Phelps Scholars Program, a residence hall-based academic initiative through which first-year students explore issues related to diversity; and the college’s chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Delta national health preprofessional honor society.
Hanna-Attisha will participate in a book-signing starting at 10 a.m. Copies of “What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City” will be available for purchase at the event through the Hope College Bookstore.
Audience members who need assistance to fully enjoy any event at Hope are encouraged to contact the college's Events and Conferences Office by emailing events@hope.edu or calling 616-395-7222 on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., on Columbia Ave. between Ninth and 10th streets.