Associate/Full Professor Tenure System and 1855 Professorship

The College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University (MSU) invites applications for two positions in the rapidly growing Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health in Flint, Michigan. 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 substantial research portfolios to MSU.

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 much of the faculty search committee tasked with hiring the best public health researchers in the country to address these issues.

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 $220 million in extramural funding. Among its many projects, the Department currently includes two NIH-funded Centers (one in maternal health equity and the other in suicide prevention) and Rx Kids, the first community-wide unconditional and universal cash prescription program for pregnant/postpartum people and infants.

Associate/Full Professor Tenure System

Seeking well-funded senior and mid-career policy, implementation, and intervention scientists to expand a new community-partnered, equity- and policy-focused medical school department.

These generous positions offer a unique opportunity for established researchers who seek to continue highly impactful programs of implementation, intervention, and policy research in topics that are both relevant to Flint and widely applicable. These include equity, social determinants of health, behavioral health, healthy behaviors, chronic disease, maternal-child health, and environmental justice, among others. Highly accomplished senior faculty may be eligible to receive the title of C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health.

These are tenured, full-time research, medical school faculty positions through which we can largely or fully guarantee salary coverage for researchers who are willing to move their substantial research portfolios to MSU. There are no classroom teaching responsibilities but numerous opportunities for research mentorship if desired. Leadership opportunities in implementation science, in developing a health equity-focused postdoctoral T32 training program, and in other areas are available. Because the Department is young, many things are possible. Salaries are very competitive, and the cost of living is low.