Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA, served as the 18th Surgeon General of the United States. Benjamin obtained her MD from the University of Alabama in 1984. In 1990, she founded Bayou Clinic, a rural health clinic in a medically underserved community in Alabama. She had to rebuild the clinic three times: after destruction from hurricanes Georges in 1998 and Katrina in 2005, and a devastating fire in 2006. In 1995, Benjamin became the first African American woman to be elected to the American Medical Association’s board of trustees. She is also the first African American woman to become president of the state medical society of Alabama. President Barack Obama nominated Benjamin for the position of Surgeon General of the United States, and she was confirmed on October 29, 2009. She served until July 16, 2013. After leaving that position Benjamin founded the Gulf States Health Policy Center in Alabama.
