Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA
Additional Biographical Information
Dr. Benjamin is former associate dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile and past chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States. In 1995, she was the first physician under age 40 and the first African-American woman to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. She served as president of the American Medical Association Education and Research Foundation and chair of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. In 2002, she became the first African-American female president of a state medical society in the United States when she assumed leadership of the Medical Association State of Alabama.
Dr. Benjamin is a member of the Institute of Medicine – the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which was chartered under President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She was chosen as a Kellogg National Fellow and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader. Past board memberships include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Catholic Health Association, and Morehouse School of Medicine.
She was named by Time magazine as one of the “Nation’s 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under.” She was featured in the 1995 New York Times article, “Angel in a White Coat;” the December 1999 cover of Clarity magazine; in the 2002 People magazine’s article, "Always on Call;” and was featured on the January 2003 cover of Reader’s Digest as one of the national publication’s "Everyday Heroes." She was also named “Person of the Week” on ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and “Woman of the Year’ by CBS This Morning.
In 1998, Dr. Benjamin was the United States recipient of the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She received the 2000 National Caring Award which was inspired by Mother Teresa and was recognized with the Papal honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Benedict XVI. In 2008, she was honored with a MacArthur Genius Award Fellowship. In 2011, Dr. Benjamin became the recipient of the Chairman’s Award during the worldwide broadcast of the 42nd NAACP Image Awards.
