February 17, 2010
Regina Benjamin. Download image.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., MBA, a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, will be the keynote speaker at the 37th Annual Medical Alumni Weekend, sponsored by the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association.
Benjamin will present the 18th Annual Constance S. and James A. Pittman lecture on her vision as surgeon general to an invitation-only audience at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Birmingham Marriot Hotel, 3590 Grandview Pkwy.
Benjamin also will be named the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association.
A native of Daphne and family physician in Bayou La Batre, Benjamin was nominated in July 2009 to the post of surgeon general by U.S. President Barack Obama. She was a member of the second class at Morehouse School of Medicine (a two-year school at the time) and completed her medical degree at UAB in 1984. She founded Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in 1987, serving a largely disadvantaged community.
She was the first African-American woman, and the first person under 40, to be elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees. In 2003 she became the president of the Medical Association State of Alabama, making her the first African-American woman president of a U.S. State Medical Society. Benjamin was the U.S. recipient of the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, as well as the MacArthur Genius Award.
The Medical Alumni Weekend will begin Friday, Feb. 19 with a meeting of the board of directors and the Reynolds Historical Lecture, "Alabama's Defining Moment: A Public Medical College Comes to Birmingham," by Tennant McWilliams, Ph.D., UAB professor of history.
Saturday the 20th will feature a scientific conference on physician health and well-being prior to Benjamin's luncheon remarks. In addition, Ira Myers, M.D., class of 1984, will receive a Distinguished Alumnus Award, posthumously. Also to be honored at the event are Christopher Smythies, M.D., class of 1983, who will receive the Garber Galbraith Medical-Political Service Award; Ellen L. Marmer, M.D., class of 1964, who will receive the Helen Butler Terry Community Service Award; and Jeff Terry, M.D., class of 1979, who will receive the Distinguished Service Award.
Benjamin earned her bachelor's degree in 1979 from Xavier University in New Orleans. She completed her residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, Ga. In 1991, after entering private practice in Bayou La Batre, she earned an MBA from Tulane University. She then converted her office to a rural health clinic.
She was the associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and a preceptor for the UAB School of Medicine. Benjamin is a diplomat of the American Board of Family Practice and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She is also a Kellogg National Fellow and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader. In 1998, she became the 13th Alabamian elected to the Institutes of Medicine. She served on the Board of Physicians for Human Rights and numerous local and state health-related organizations.
About UAB
Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is the state of Alabama's largest employer and an internationally renowned research university and academic health center whose professional schools and specialty patient care programs are consistently ranked as among the nation's top 50; find more information at www.uab.edu and www.uabmedicine.org.