Two Women Scholars Selected to Receive $250,000 Heinz Awards

Two women scholars have been selected to receive a Heinz Award from the Heinz Family Foundation. The awards come with an unrestricted $250,000 prize. The winners will be honored at a ceremony in Pittsburgh on October 18.

Mona Hanna-Attisha will receive the Heinz Award in the Public Policy category for exposing the presence of elevated lead levels in children residing in Flint, Michigan, for working to establish a system of comprehensive care and support for affected children and families, and for her efforts to ignite a renewed nationwide conversation about lead exposure and drinking water safety. Dr. Hanna-Attisha is also coordinating the establishment of a registry to track the impact of these interventions for decades.

Dr. Hanna-Attisha is the director of the pediatric residency program at Hurley Medical Center in Flint and an associate professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Dr. Hanna-Attisha received her bachelor’s and master of public health degrees from the University of Michigan and her medical degree from Michigan State University.

Natasha Trethewey, the Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has been selected to receive the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities. Teresa Heinz, chair of the Heinz Family Foundation, stated that Professor Trethewey’s “writing captivates us with its power and its ability to personalize and fearlessly illuminate stories of our past as a people and a nation. We honor her not only for her body of work, but for her contributions as a teach and mentor dedicated to inspiring the next generation of writers.”

Professor Trethewey is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection, Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) and three other poetry collections. She is also the author of Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (University of Georgia Press, 2010). Professor Trethewey served two terms as poet laureate of the United States. A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, Professor Trethewey is a graduate of the University of Georgia. She holds a master’s degree from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.