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President Obama names Dr. Regina M. Benjamin for U.S. Surgeon General
Washington, D.C.–President Obama and the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) http://www.hhs.gov, Kathleen Sebelius, announced the nomination for the U.S. Surgeon General on Monday. Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, a 52 year-old Alabama family physician was nominated for the Surgeon General’s post after CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, declined over three month’s ago leaving the top U.S. health official spot vacant, as reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, July 14, 2009.
Benjamin graduated from Xavier University, Morehouse School of Medicine and the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Dr. Benjamin has served as one of the only doctors to a small Gulf Coast shrimping village in Alabama and founded a rural health care clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. She has strived tirelessly to continue to serve the non-insured and under privileged residents of the 2,500 population town for over two decades. The doctor rebuilt the small health care clinic three times after hurricanes and fire repeatedly destroyed the health care facility. In 2002, she was appointed president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama and became the first African American woman to hold the presidential position in a state medical society in America.
The Surgeon General is lead the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and acts as the leading spokesperson for public health in the United States federal government. The Surgeon General’s office is termed the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/index.html. Her induction as Surgeon General of the United States of America awaits Senate confirmation.
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