After completing her degrees, in 2006, Dr. Hanna-Attisha became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Wayne State University and a Pediatrician and Associate Program Director at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. In 2009, Hanna-Attisha served as the associate pediatric program director at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, where she supervised over 100 residents, the development of academic curriculums, online education platform implementation, recruitment of residents, and participated in program committees.

In 2011, she was appointed Hurley Medical Center’s pediatric residency program director and an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine in the Pediatrics and Human Development Department. She continued supervising residents, developing student instruction and a master clinical teacher series for faculty. In 2012, Hanna-Attisha was elected to the Michigan Board of Directors for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Without Dr. Hanna-Attisha, the authorities might still be denying there was ever a problem with the water in Flint, Michigan. After the city’s water supply switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River, residents’ desperate pleas that something was wrong with their water were ignored. In 2015, Dr. Hanna-Attisha learned that Marc Edwards, a civil and environmental engineer from Virginia Tech, had come to Flint in March of that year. Dr. Edwards found that the lack of corrosion inhibitors in the new Flint water source was corroding the water pipes and leaching lead into the drinking water.

Upon hearing about the possibility of lead in the water, Dr. Hanna-Attisha began a new research study using data available in electronic medical records. Her study found that the percentage of children in Flint with over five micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood increased from 2.1 percent to 4 percent after the city’s water source changed. She also found that the areas of Flint with the highest water lead levels had the most significant increases in elevated lead levels in children. Even after Dr. Edwards proved that Flint had elevated lead levels in its water, the authorities still did not act. Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s research provided crucial evidence that the water was elevating blood lead levels in Flint’s children.

On September 24, 2015. Dr. Hanna-Attisha held a press conference to publicly share her research findings and their public health implications. At the time of the press conference, her findings were not yet peer-reviewed. Although her results were later confirmed, the State of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson initially criticized her for her press conference.

In 2016, Dr. Hanna-Attisha was recognized for her work on the Flint water crisis. She was named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Politico’s 50 Visionaries Transforming American Politics, and received the PEN American Center James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award. In 2017, she received the 22nd Heinz Award for Public Policy.

Dr. Hanna-Attisha published her book What The Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City in 2018, in which she shares why she decided to risk her reputation and career to serve her patients. Her book was named a New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2018 and one of NPR’s Science Friday’s Best Science Books of 2018.

Dr. Hanna-Attisha serves on several advisories and boards to advance the causes of health equity and social justice. These include the Flint Child Health and Development Fund (flintkids.org), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Advisory Council, Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), the JPB Foundation Poverty and Environment Steering Committee, Abraham Lincoln Brigades Archives (ALBA) Board, and University of Michigan School of Public Health Griffith Leadership Center in Health Policy and Management Advisory Board Member.

She has testified multiple times before the United States Congress, lectured at dozens of colleges and universities, and frequently contributed to national media outlets championing the cause of children in Flint and beyond. Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s influential work is often recognized. In 2020, she received the Fries Prize for Improving Health from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation, the Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service from the Arab American Institute Foundation, and was included in USA Today’s 100 Women of the Century. In 2021, she received the Environmental Hero Award, Healthcare Without Harm. In 2022, she received the Excellence in Instruction Award from Michigan State University & Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative.