On July 13, President Obama nominated Regina Benjamin, MD, as the next U.S. Surgeon General. Dr. Benjamin is a graduate of Xavier University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the University of Alabama School of Medicine, and she also holds an MBA from Tulane University. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Upon completion of her education and residency, Dr. Benjamin returned to the region that she grew up in, starting a family practice in Bayou la Batre, Alabama. After several years, she converted her medical office into a small rural health clinic dedicated to serving the large indigent population in her community.

Her dedication has won Dr. Benjamin national recognition. In 1995, she became the first African-American woman, and the first person under 40, to be elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees. Dr. Benjamin also serves on the Board of Physicians for Human Rights. She is a 1998 Mandela Award Winner, a former Kellogg National Fellow, has been featured as ABC Television’s Person of the Week, and in 1996 was chosen by CBS This Morning as Woman of the Year.