Share Tweet Share Share Print

Contact: Emily Springer, Communication Manager, Communication and Information Technology, University Outreach and Engagement, sprin116@msu.edu

EAST LANSING, MI— Scholars and leaders working in engaged scholarship, community development, and human medicine were recently named to the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES).

The inductees—Kwesi Brookins, Ph.D., vice provost for University Outreach and Engagement (UOE) and professor of psychology; Bob Brown, M.P.A., associate director of the MSU Center for Community and Economic Development (CCED); and Mona Hanna, M.D., M.P.H., a C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health—were nominated by their peers.

ACES is an international academy of individuals who have made significant contributions to advancing university-community collaboration. Their work contributes to policy development, identification and dissemination of evidence-based practices, and high impact community-engaged scholarship.

“Kwesi Brookins, Bob Brown, and Mona Hanna are exceptional representatives of Michigan State’s commitment to university-community partnerships,” said Thomas Jeitschko, interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “It’s gratifying and exciting to see their many years of achievements and contributions in outreach and engagement recognized. I’m confident that their collective expertise and individual influence will add to the Academy’s work of promoting the practice and scholarship of community engagement in the United States and around the world. I am proud of their work and look forward to the continuation of their incredible efforts.”

A scholar of ecological-community psychology, Brookins leads the office of University Outreach and Engagement. Prior to coming to MSU in 2023, he served as vice provost for UOE at North Carolina State University, where he also directed the Center for Family and Community Engagement and founded the Africana studies program. Brookins has published on community-based interventions, African American identity development, and the necessity of developing a social and political consciousness for community leadership and activism.

As an associate director of CCED, Brown facilitates university-community partnerships that are scholarly, community-based, collaborative, and capacity-building for the common good. For more than 25 years, Brown has specialized in the creation of systemic engagement platforms to link science and community for transformational change, as well as combining human, community, and economic development for collective impacts. He served in senior leadership roles with the United Way and other agencies and nonprofit organizations before coming to MSU in 1998.

Hanna, a pediatrician, is associate dean for public health with the College of Human Medicine, a new position created to coordinate and expand the college’s efforts to promote and protect the health of entire communities. She is the founding director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative, a partnership of MSU and Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, Michigan. The recipient of the 2024 National Humanism in Medicine Medal from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, Hanna has also been recognized as one of USA Today’s Women of the Century for her role in uncovering the Flint water crisis and leading recovery efforts. She is also working to eliminate infant poverty with a first-in-the-nation program, Rx Kids.

Brookins, Brown, and Hanna will be formally inducted during a virtual ceremony on Thursday, August 15.