Flint Water Crisis

MSU has maintained an active and persistent presence in the greater Flint community for over 100 years, exemplifying the best of the land grant tradition through a focus on community public health, research, and Extension programming covering both urban and rural needs. In the midst of the Flint water crisis, these trusted relationships and long-standing engagements were crucial as MSU leaders in the Colleges of Human Medicine, Nursing, Education, Communications, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Extension, and other academic units worked to support the immediate and long-term impacts of the lead in water crisis.

Of these many efforts, MSU CHM Associate Professor Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha - a fierce advocate for Flint residents who is credited as one of the key voices who sounded the alarm about elevated blood lead levels in children - spearheaded creation of the MSU/Hurley Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative (PPHI) in 2016. This initiative has sought to create a model public health program to research and respond to the Flint water crisis by leveraging state, federal, and philanthropic resources to help study and address community-informed needs. As part of this collaboration, MSU is honored to host the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded Flint Registry, which was created by a bi-partisan Act of Congress in 2016 and competitively bid to MSU in 2017. The Registry connects people to services and programs to promote health and wellness while also seeking to understand how the Flint water crisis has affected the Flint community.