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President Obama Taps Xavier Alumna Dr. Regina Benjamin for Surgeon General

by Michelle J. Nealy , July 14, 2009

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President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician and Xavier University of Louisiana alumna, to be the next Surgeon General.

Benjamin, 52, is founder of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic, which serves the poor, uninsured and other underserved patients in Mobile County, Ala.

Benjamin gained acclaim for her determination to rebuild her clinic after hurricanes George in 1998 and Katrina in 2005 shuttered the building. In 2006, a fire destroyed Benjamin's clinic just after flood damage was repaired. During this period, Benjamin, who often administers medical services to her patients for free, and her staff operated the clinic from a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer.

Benjamin received a bachelor’s degree in 1979 from Xavier University, a historically Black institution known for its ability to place its students in medical school. She received medical degrees from the Morehouse School of Medicine and the University of Alabama, Birmingham. She also holds a master's degree in business administration from Tulane University.

“Regina Benjamin has defied the odds for so long, in a way, I knew that this was coming,” says Dr. Norman Francis, president of Xavier University.  “This is a tribute to why Xavier University was founded. We were founded by a woman (Katherine Drexel, a nun) who saw a need to have young people in New Orleans get what was denied – a Catholic higher education. She saw the need and filled it. Regina took the message well. She saw the need in Bayou La Batre and filled it.”

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Comments posted here may be reprinted in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and/or space.



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