The Doctor Is ( Finally ) In : Obama To Nominate Regina Benjamin as Surgeon General
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doctor finally obama nominate regina benjamin surgeon general
The Doctor Is ( Finally ) In : Obama To <m> Nominate </m> Regina Benjamin as Surgeon General
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The Doctor Is ( Finally ) In : Obama To <m> Nominate </m> Regina Benjamin as Surgeon General
Jul 13 , 2009 11 : 23am
President Obama will name Dr . Regina Benjamin as U . S . Surgeon General in a Rose Garden announcement late this morning .
Benjamin , an Alabama family physician , runs a rural health clinic in Bayou La Batre .
She was the first African - American woman to head a state medical society and received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" last year .
She became known nationally for her determination to rebuild her clinic , destroyed in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 .
In her profile on the National Institutes of Health web site , Benjamin writes about her calling to become a doctor while in medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham .
"I believe it was divine intervention - it was in medical school when I realized there was nothing else I'd rather do with my life than to be a doctor .
I had never seen a black doctor before I went to college , so I did not have an idea that I wanted to be one .
I never thought I that I couldn't , but I never really thought about it at all . "
According to a 1997 article in Ebony , Benjamin said she applied to Yale University School of Law before she attended college .
"They sent me a reply politely telling me that I needed my undergraduate degree first . "
To pay for college , she turned to the National Health Service Corps , which gave her a tuition reimbursement in exchange for committing to work in areas where there was a shortage of doctors .
That agreement took her to Bayou La Batre where she was the only doctor for 2 , 500 people , most of whom lived below the poverty line and spoke no English .
Benjamin was named the Person of the Week on ABC News' World News Tonight in 1995 and conveyed the challenges of servicing poor patients .
"The people are real , genuine , hardworking .
They're proud people .
They make a living the best they can on shrimp boats .
They , unfortunately , are too poor to pay their medical bills at times , " she told ABC News' Peter Jennings .
"Sometimes it's very frustrating .
Sometimes I can do everything that the textbooks taught me and school taught me and then patients can't buy their medicine .
And it's all for nothing . "
In January , it was reported that President Obama had asked CNN's Dr . Sanjay Gupta to be Surgeon General , and that Gupta had mulled the offer for a while , but eventually turned it down .
Benjamin will appear in the Rose Garden today as the president makes the nomination formal .