Science & invention / Civil rights & activism
Mona Hanna
born 1976 · pediatrician, public health researcher
Pediatrician raised in Royal Oak and trained at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, whose research exposed the Flint water crisis and who created the Rx Kids cash program.
- Born
Sheffield, England
age 49- Also known as
- Mona Hanna-Attisha
- Detroit years
- 1980s–2000s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Mona Hanna, long known as Mona Hanna-Attisha, was born in Sheffield, England, in 1976 to an Iraqi family and grew up in Royal Oak, north of Detroit, where she graduated from Kimball High School. She studied at the University of Michigan, earning a bachelor's degree and a master's in public health, and took her medical degree at Michigan State University. She completed her residency and chief residency in the Wayne State University program at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, and in 2009 she became the hospital's associate pediatric program director. Moving to Hurley Children's Hospital in Flint, she published data in 2015 showing that children's blood lead levels had risen after the city switched its water source; state officials first attacked her findings, then apologized. She told the story in What the Eyes Don't See (2018). In 2024 she launched Rx Kids, cash aid for new mothers and babies, which by 2026 had expanded to Detroit, its largest city.
Highlights
- Her 2015 study exposed rising lead levels in Flint children
- Author of What the Eyes Don't See (2018), a New York Times notable book
- Founded Rx Kids, cash aid for pregnant mothers and infants, in 2024
- Resident, chief resident and associate program director at Children's Hospital of Michigan
- Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, 2018
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 2000s–2009
Children's Hospital of Michigan
She did her pediatric residency and chief residency here and in 2009 became associate pediatric program director.