Crisis, Resistance, and Hope

The Western Illinois Museum, in partnership with the One Book One Community Festival, will host a conversation based on the book What the Eyes Don’t See with University of Michigan (UM-Flint) staff, Paula Nas, Nicolas Custer, and Troy Rosencrants, who were directly involved in confronting the government when dangerous levels of lead were discovered in Flint water. The program will be held on Thursday, April 4th, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at the Museum. 

What the Eyes Don’t See by Mona Hanna-Attisha is one of the books selected for this year’s festival and recounts the issues the Flint community faced to ensure access to clean water. The three UM-Flint guests will join the program live online in a conversation with the program’s facilitator, IIRA Director, Chris Merrett. They will focus on safe drinking water, accountability, and community-based activism. The in-person audience at the Museum will be invited to join the conversation with the guests who will be present on screen. 

The program will begin with the UM-Flint staff giving their perspectives on the Flint water crisis described in Hanna-Attisha’s book. They will also address the impact of the crisis on residents’ trust in government. Paula and her team will share their experiences and give examples of the local and state investment needed to fix existing water quality issues as communities across the country confront them. 

Participants in the conversation will consider the role of grassroots, community-based activism in establishing a safe and economically viable plan to remove lead from their water delivery systems. The program will offer participants insights whether or not they have read the book. Its goal is to ensure water crises, like the one experienced in Flint, Michigan, do not happen again. 

The Western Illinois Museum is a non-profit organization celebrating and nurturing the history, culture, and traditions of McDonough County.  The Museum is located in a historic building at 201 S. Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square. For further information, call 309-837-2750, text 309-837-2613, or email info@wimuseum.org. 

About the Participants

Paula Nas
Director of the Office of Economic Development and the Center for Community and Economic Development

Paula Nas is the Director of UM-Flint’s Office of Economic Development and has been a lecturer of Economics at UM-Flint for the past 25 years. She is a graduate of the Honors Program at UM-Flint and holds an MA in Economics from Michigan State University and a JD from Wayne State University Law School. Paula’s primary academic fields of interest are Law and Economics and Microeconomic theory.  She also developed the Economics for Educators course and the MPA course in Social Entrepreneurship at UM-Flint. Paula is passionate about entrepreneurship and community and economic development, specifically in connecting faculty and students with economic development, business, education, and municipal leaders through a variety of initiatives. She is proud to work with a team that is dedicated to continuing to expand and broaden meaningful relationships between UM-Flint and community partners. 

Nic Custer
Innovation Services Manager, University of Flint, Michigan

Nic Custer is the Innovation Services Manager for UM- Flint’s Office of Economic Development. He has helped small businesses and nonprofits prosper for more than a decade. Nic also currently serves as board chair for Court Street Village Nonprofit and Buckham Gallery as well as Vice President of the Central Park Neighborhood Association.

Troy Rosencrants
Manager, of the Geographic Information Systems Center 

Since 2013, Troy Rosencrants has led the GIS Center at the University of Michigan-Flint. His responsibilities encompass the oversight of project management, mentorship and coordination of student research assistants, as well as active participation in the Center’s grant initiatives. With a multifaceted career in GIS, Troy’s expertise is applied across a spectrum of fields such as meteorology and climatology, hazard studies, economics, literature, history, and other realms of community-centered research.  In addition to his managerial duties, Troy has taught courses in weather, climate, and geospatial technology at the university.  He holds a Master’s degree in Geography from Northern Illinois University, alongside a double Bachelor’s in Geography with a focus on GIS, and Meteorology from Central Michigan University.

Chris Merrett
Dean for Innovation and Economic Development and Director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Development, Western Illinois University 

Chris Merrett earned his Ph.D. (University of Iowa) in Geography and Planning. He is the Dean for Innovation and Economic Development and the Director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA) at Western Illinois University (WIU). The IIRA is a university-based research, outreach, teaching, and policy center focused on rural development. Merrett also serves as WIU Distinguished University Professor.

Merrett has authored or collaborated on more than 100 publications and has secured over $13 million in external funding from agencies including the USDA, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), and the National Science Foundation.

As a rural policy advocate, Merrett serves on the Illinois Governor’s Rural Affairs Council, which is chaired by the Illinois Lt. Governor. He also serves on the Lt. Governor’s Ag Equity and Food Insecurity advisory board.

About the One Book One Community Festival

The One Book One Community idea comes from the American Library Association, and cities and towns across the USA have been adopting—and adapting–the program for more than two decades. Every year participating communities invite residents to read a specific book and gather in small or large groups to discuss it.

To engage children, adolescents, and adults, the Macomb’s OBOC Committee chooses three books on a particular theme and schedules conversations, concerts, and other activities to bring different age groups together around the theme. Events are scheduled by a variety of organizations throughout a given month and offer residents multiple opportunities to get involved. 

Some of the organizations participating in the OBOC Festival, besides the Western Illinois Museum, are the Macomb Public Library, the YMCA, the University of Illinois Extension, area Book Clubs, Macomb schools, the WIU Community Music School String Ensemble, and Prairie View Apartments.

The books chosen for the 2024 OBOC Festival are: This Raindrop Has a Billion Stories to Tell by Linda Ragsdale, an illustrated children’s book; A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, a short novel for young adults; and What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City by Mona Hanna-Attisha, an analysis of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis written for adults.

About the Shared Community Action Group

The Shared Community Action (SCA) Group is composed of leaders of civic and religious organizations who first came together as the Moving Macomb Forward Committee. 

The SCA’s goal is to strengthen long-term dialogue and cooperation among the diverse members of the Macomb community. It seeks to develop ways individuals and organizations can contribute to an equitable, just, healthy, and strong community, and to confront barriers that keep community members apart and undermine community-building.

The SCA is committed to working with everyone in Macomb who supports its goals, recognizes the human dignity of each of its residents and visitors, and wants to take up the challenge of an ever-deepening dedication to justice and equity.