Regina Benjamin new nominee for surgeon general
News outlets are reporting that Obama will nominate Regina Benjamin for the post of surgeon general. The announcement is supposed to come in a few hours, in the midst of the first day of hearings for another somewhat controversial women of color appointment, Sonia Sotomayor.
About Benjamin (via McArthur Foundation):
Regina Benjamin is a rural family physician forging an inspiring model of compassionate and effective medical care in one of the most underserved regions of the United States. In 1990, she founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic to serve the Gulf Coast fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, a village of approximately 2,500 residents devastated twice in the past decade by Hurricanes Georges, in 1998, and Katrina, in 2005. Despite scarce resources, Benjamin has painstakingly rebuilt her clinic after each disaster and set up networks to maintain contact with patients scattered across multiple evacuation sites.
At first glance her work sounds pretty amazing, and I think it's awesome to be elevating someone who has worked in on the gulf coast.
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This is good news, but just wait until the Republicans find something "bad" about her and then they're gonna be screaming about her. Just you guys wait...
I'm practicing feigning surprise already! :P
Oh my god, you know what's the most amazing thing about this for me? I saw a headline about the nomination a few hours ago, and it IN NO WAY mentioned her gender! I think it said something like "Rural family physician chosen."
Now yeah, of course, it's gonna come up. But I'm gonna be happy about this for a couple minutes. *happy*
I am so proud as a native of Alabama to hear this news. Dr. Benjamin is awesome. She is the Paul Farmer of the rural poor in my home state.