Dean's Update
August 29, 2025 - Aron Sousa, MD
Aron with Associate Dean for Administration Carol Parker, PhD, in front of the home of the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health in Flint. Carol and her operations team manage all our buildings and construction projects like our new building in Flint.
Friends,
Last Tuesday, President Guskiewicz gathered us in Flint for the ribbon cutting ceremony marking the opening of our new building for the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health. The 40,000 square foot expansion of the College of Human Medicine’s Flint campus is the first building to be started and completed during President Guskiewicz’ service to the university – we do know how to get things done. Did you miss the ribbon cutting, or do you want to relive its awesomeness? Check out some pictures of the Flint community partners, the words of Bishop Bernadel Jefferson from her presentation, and some of the media, media, media, and media coverage.
It was such an honor to have our clinical partners, elected officials, staff, faculty, tradespeople, the Mott Foundation, and the Uptown Reinvestment Corporation with us at the ribbon cutting. I want to offer special thanks to everyone who put on the event including our Flint team and community relations, communications, and events team led by Rosalynn Bliss. The event was so well run and I have to thank Emily Linnert for all the media support, Amy Nienhouse, MS, for the communications programming, and Melissa Veneklase for coordinating the event right after the Flint Teddy Bear Health Fair and on the way to the Secchia Center Anniversary.
A project this big requires the work of so many people and too many to thank. I will miss some folks, and I apologize for missing you, but I will thank some of the people who need to be thanked: Jill Vondrasek, Nadija Kadunic, Steven Kaatz, Claudia Price, Erica Phillipich, Erik Dane, Brian Joshua, the CHM IT team, Linda Cornish, Dave Bender, Josh Kennedy, Tae Blair. And, a big shout out to Brad Kline, our Chief Finance Officer, who not only keeps the money flowing, he worked out the financial models for the building and department. There is no one more valuable in an institution than a banker who believes in the mission.
The expansion of the College of Human Medicine in Flint is only possible because of the people of Flint, who are our collaborators, partners, and colleagues. The Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health is the only academic department of any kind in the country (probably the world!) created and run as a partnership between the faculty and the people of a community. That partnership was at the very heart of the project from the beginning. A collaborative team of community members and faculty set the original research priorities of the program (healthy behaviors, behavioral health, and chronic disease), and then they gave us a gift we were not expecting: the team also told us we should focus on interventions that would reduce health disparities. It is the focus on interventions that close gaps in health for all that has made such a difference for the department.
After the collaborations to start the department, we continued to include community members in our search committees, and the search for the founding chair was co-chaired by a community member. Our founding chair, Jennifer Johnson, PhD, and associate chair, Kent Key, PhD, have deepened the partnership to include community members on department committees and as a central part of departmental governance, priorities, and planning. We pay community members for their expertise and service for their committee work and their collaboration on grants. With the community as our collaborators and spectacular faculty, the department is the biggest research funding engine in the college. We hired our first faculty member into the nascent program just 10 years ago and look at what they have become!
Our work is about more than money, although bringing money into Flint through jobs and programming is a key outcome for our partners in the Mott Foundation. The impact of our work is astonishing:
- The Reach Out, Stay Strong Essentials (ROSE) program, which prevents half of cases of postpartum depression, has been implemented in prenatal settings nationally.
- The Flint Registry is a model for community environmental exposure and has offered more than 35,000 referrals and services.
- The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program puts a “prescription” for fresh fruits and vegetables into the hands of kids after they visit their pediatrician. This Flint-based pilot is now in the U.S. Farm Bill and is a national program.
- Rx Kids is the country’s first community-wide cash transfer program for moms and babies. It has reduced evictions in the first year of life, prevented NICU admissions, and increased access to prenatal care. So much Dr. Mona awesomeness!
- High Touch High Tech has screened more than 15,000 pregnant people for substance use, partner violence, mental health, and social determinants, then offered effective electronic interventions, improving access to care, especially in rural areas.
The people of Michigan created Michigan State University to bring opportunity to future generations and to bring the benefits of scholarly advancement to their families, businesses, and communities. The College of Human Medicine fulfills that mission in Flint and across the state, in communities large and small, to all regardless of who they are. You can live under a bridge or in the governor’s mansion and the College of Human Medicine will be there for you.
Overall, it has been a very happy week that started with the White Coat Ceremony in Grand Rapids last Saturday. We welcomed 190 new MD students to the college and the profession. Our student affairs and academic affairs teams put on a great event, and it is clear that the students, their families, and the guest hooders experience just how much the people of the college care about the students and their journey. They will join us as colleagues working across the state to create sanative communities that care for everyone as befits the greatest community-based medical school in the land. Happy, groovy, delightful events this week.
Serving the people with you,
Aron
Aron Sousa, MD, FACP
Dean, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine