Regina Benjamin
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| Regina Benjamin | |
 Regina Benjamin on July 13, 2009 | |
| | |
|---|---|
| Taking office TBD* | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Succeeding | Richard Carmona |
| | |
| Born | October 26, 1956 Mobile, Alabama |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Religion | Roman Catholic[1] |
| *Pending Senate confirmation | |
Regina Marcia Benjamin[1] (born on October 26, 1956 in Mobile, Alabama[2]) is an American physician, who runs a nonprofit medical clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, in the United States.
Dr. Benjamin notably became the first African American woman on the American Medical Association's board of trustees when she was elected to the post in 1995.
On July 13, 2009 President Barack Obama announced the choice of Benjamin for the position of Surgeon General of the United States.[3][4] Benjamin will be the President's second choice for Surgeon General, after his first choice, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, declined the nomination.[5] If confirmed, Benjamin will become the third African American and the third non-acting[6] woman to hold the position.
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[edit] Education
Dr. Benjamin attended Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and was a member of the second class of the Morehouse School of Medicine.[1] She received her M.D. degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed her residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia.[1] After entering solo practice in Bayou La Batre, Dr. Benjamin spent several years moonlighting in emergency rooms and nursing homes to keep her practice open. After receiving an MBA from the Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, she converted her office to a rural health clinic.[7]
[edit] Professional Activities
Regina Benjamin is former associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama's College of Medicine in Mobile, where she administers the Alabama AHEC program and previously directed its Telemedicine Program. She serves as the current president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. In 1995 she was elected to the American Medical Association's board of trustees, making her the first physician under age 40 and the first African-American woman to be elected.[8]
Benjamin is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She was a Kellogg National Fellow and also a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader. She has served on a variety of boards and committees, including the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Catholic Health East, Medical Association of the State of Alabama, Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, Alabama State Committee of Public Health, Mobile County Medical Society, Alabama Rural Health Association, Leadership Alabama, Mobile Area Red Cross, Mercy Medical, Mobile Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Mobile, Physicians for Human Rights [9] and Deep South Girl Scout Council.[10]
She was appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act Committee and to the Council of Graduate Medical Education, and she is also a member of the "Step 3 Committee."[10] In Alabama, she formerly served as vice president of the Governor's Commission on Aging, and also formerly as a member of the Governor's Health Care Reform Task Force and the Governor's Task Force on Children's Health.[10]
Benjamin's clinic was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and in 2006 by a fire on New Year's Day, one day before the scheduled reopening. She made headlines when she rebuilt the clinic a second time.[7]
[edit] Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic
Dr. Benjamin is founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. Bayou La Batre is a small shrimping village along the gulf coast. Dr. Benjamin was the subject of a Reader's Digest article that chronicled her efforts to rebuild the clinic after Hurricane Katrina.[11]
[edit] Surgeon General of the United States
On July 13, 2009, Benjamin was nominated by President Barack Obama to hold the position of Surgeon General of the United States.[12] Benjamin accepted the President's nomination, and made clear of her dissatisfaction with the current health care system, in terms of both accessibilty, as well as cost.[1]
Also in accepting her nomination, Benjamin described her own hardships faced by disease and illness in her own family. She noted her brother, who died of HIV, as well as her father, who died of high blood pressure and diabetes, and her mother who died of lung cancer. All of which, she implied, were "preventable diseases."[13]
Her political support for abortion rights has been cited as a possible source of controversy, since Benjamin, who is a devout Roman Catholic, has also received an award from the Holy See, a strong opponent of such procedures.[14]
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