Dr. Benjamin is founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural
Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. She is former associate dean for rural
health at the University of South Alabama's College of Medicine in Mobile, where
she administers the Alabama AHEC program and previously directed its Telemedicine
Program. She serves as the current president of the Medical Association, of the
State of Alabama. In 1998 she was the United States' recipient of the Nelson Mandela
Award for Health and Human Rights. In 1995 she was elected to the American Medical
Association's board of trustees, making her the first physician under age 40 and
the first African-American woman to be elected. She has also served as president
of the American Medical Association's Education and Research Foundation.
Born in 1956, Dr. Benjamin attended Xavier University in New Orleans and was
a member of the second class of the Morehouse School of Medicine. She received
her M.D. degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed her
residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia. After
entering solo practice in Bayou La Batre (a small shrimping village along the
gulf coast), Dr. Benjamin spent several years moonlighting in emergency rooms
and nursing homes to keep her practice open. After receiving an MBA from Tulane
University, she converted her office to a rural health clinic.
Dr. Benjamin is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and a
Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She was a Kellogg National
Fellow and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader. She serves on numerous boards
and committees, including the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured,
Catholic Health East, Medical Association of the State of Alabama, Alabama Board
of Medical Examiners, Alabama State Committee of Public Health, Mobile County
Medical Society, Alabama Rural Health Association, Leadership Alabama, Mobile
Area Red Cross, Mercy Medical, Mobile Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Mobile,
and Deep South Girl Scout Council.
She was appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary
Donna Shalala to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act Committee and to the
Council of Graduate Medical Education, and is a member of the Step 3 Committee.
In Alabama she has served as vice president of the Governor's Commission on
Aging and as a member of the Governor's Health Care Reform Task Force and the
Governor's Task Force on Children's Health.
Dr. Benjamin was named by Time Magazine as one of the "Nation's 50 Future
Leaders Age 40 and Under. " She was featured in a New York Times article,
"Angel in a White Coat, " and was chosen "Person of the Week"
by ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, "Woman of the Year"
by CBS This Morning, and "Woman of the Year" by People Magazine. She
was featured on the December 1999 cover of Clarity Magazine and received the
2000 National Caring Award, which was inspired by Mother Teresa.
Consistent with her strong social conscience, Dr. Benjamin has spent time
doing missionary work in Honduras and is on the Board of Physicians for Human
Rights. Her interests include environmental issues and eco and adventure travel.