Rural Alabama Doctor Chosen As Surgeon General

Dr. Regina Benjamin, Surgeon-General Designate of the United States

President Obama has chosen Dr. Regina Benjamin of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, to become U.S. Surgeon General. An alumna of both Xavier University and Morehouse College, traditionally black colleges, AP says:

Benjamin was the first black woman to head a state medical society, the State of Alabama Medical Association; received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and just last fall received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” But she made headlines in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with her determination to rebuild her rural health clinic Bayou La Batre, Ala., which serves 4,400 patients who would be hard-pressed to find care elsewhere.