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The College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University (MSU) invites applications from well-funded senior or mid-career data scientists or biostatisticians for a tenured full-time research position (Associate or Full Professor) in the highly prolific and rapidly growing Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health in Flint, Michigan. This generous position offers a unique opportunity for an established researcher and biostatistician who is interested in supporting departmental research while also pursuing their own interests in implementation, intervention, or policy research in topics that are both relevant to Flint and beyond. These include equity, social determinants of health, behavioral health, healthy behaviors, chronic disease, maternal-child health, firearm violence, and environmental justice, among others. A $25 million gift from the Flint-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation allows us to largely or fully guarantee salary coverage for researchers who are willing to move their research portfolios to MSU. Highly accomplished senior faculty may have the opportunity to receive the title of C. S. Mott Endowed Professor.

An innovative premise. Located in Flint, Michigan, the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health seeks to build on strong and energetic growth in research. Flint has a long history of community activism and involvement. It is one of the birthplaces of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and includes nationally recognized community pioneers and citizen scientists. For example, the first community representative to be President of the American Public Health Association in its 100+ year history, beginning her term in 2023, is a member of the Flint community. In 2011, the Flint community (including Flint-area hospitals) approached MSU with a proposal to create an academic Department of Public Health in Flint. Their idea was that the department would improve health through community-identified public health solutions, provide an economic driver for Flint, and lead the nation in health equity informed policy change. MSU agreed and took an unprecedented community- participatory approach, building the Flint community into the Department and its governance, including focus areas, priorities, and faculty to hire. Through 1000+ surveys and more than 100 interviews, community members identified the top public health needs of Flint, providing the areas of focus for the new unit, which began as a Division in 2015. Community members make up and continue to make up much of the faculty search committee tasked with hiring the best public health researchers in the country to address these issues. What began as a Division in 2015 became a Department in 2022, spurring a new phase of growth and development.

This radical experiment in community-partnered departmental administration has been wildly successful both in funding and in real-world impact. Departmental faculty have obtained over $200 million in extramural funding in areas of high importance originally identified by the Flint community, including health equity, social determinants of health (e.g., violence, safety, the built environment, education, employment), behavioral health (e.g., mental health and substance use), healthy behaviors (e.g., screening/prevention), and chronic disease. Recent events have also highlighted maternal-child health and environmental justice. Primary research methodologies are action-oriented: implementation science (including sustainment), dissemination and communication, intervention and services research, and research to change health policy. The Department also includes three health geographers whose work focuses on identifying and eliminating the effects of racism on the built environment. Community members are ready to work alongside researchers to improve conditions here, nationally, and gl