Flint clean-water crusader to speak at SUNY Oswego

The college selected her book, "What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City," as its campus-wide Oswego Reading Initiative book for summer reading. It dovetails with the college's cross-campus project titled "Grand Challenge: Fresh Water for All."

A physician, scientist and now an activist, Hanna-Attisha helped bring the fight for clean water in Flint to the national spotlight. The book is her account of research that showed her young patients had suffered from dangerously higher levels of lead in their blood in the year since the city of Flint changed its water source in 2014. She found water flowed into homes from the Flint River without adequate treatment, while it previously had been drawn from the Great Lakes.

In "What the Eyes Don't See," Hannah-Attisha chronicles the disaster in Flint -- the story of a city on the ropes that came together to fight for justice, self-determination and the right to build a better world for their children. She was called to testify twice before Congress, awarded the Freedom of Expression Courage Award by PEN America and the Great Lakes Great Read Non-Fiction Award, and was 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.

The author is 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. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC and countless other media outlets championing the cause of children in Flint and beyond. She is founding donor of the Flint Child Health and Development Fund.

The talk is free and open to the public. For more information on the book, the speaker or the Oswego Reading Initiative, visit oswego.edu/ori.