July 16, 2013
After serving as U.S. surgeon general for four years after her appointment by President Barack Obama, Dr. Regina Benjamin resigned her position on July 16, 2013, to take the position of Endowed Chair in Public Health at Xavier University of Louisiana. A resident of Spanish Fort, Alabama, Benjamin continues to give her time to her Bayou Clinic in Bayou La Batre. Since serving as surgeon general, Benjamin has collected numerous awards and degrees. During the past several years, she has received several honorary doctorates, and has delivered commencement addresses and senior day events at several Ivy League colleges.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Official portrait of U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, 2009. (Office of the Surgeon General of the United States, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Wikipedia)
President Barack Obama and Regina Benjamin at the White House in Washington, D.C. The president announced the Alabama physician’s nomination for the office of U.S. Surgeon General on July 13, 2009. (Photograph by White House photographer Lawrence Jackson, from Encyclopedia of Alabama)
U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin delivers remarks about government and community efforts to fight childhood obesity during an event with first lady Michelle Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius while visiting the YMCA Jan. 28, 2010 in Alexandria, Virginia. Benjamin released a paper on the public health challenge posed by the rise in obesity, particularly among children, and the importance of involving parents, health care providers, schools and local communities in finding comprehensive solutions. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is a rural health expert whose accolades include selection as one of Time magazine’s “Fifty Future Leaders under 40” in 1994, and the Caring Institute’s National Caring Award in 2000. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.