Obama names surgeon gen. pick
Posted: Monday, July 13, 2009 10:18 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
White House
From NBC's Chuck Todd and Mark Murray
On the very day we're all focused on the Sotomayor hearing, President Obama is going to nominate Dr. Regina Benjamin as the new surgeon general.
Obama will name her from the Rose Garden at 11:40 am ET.
Some quick bio nuggets on Benjamin:
-- Alabama family physician; first African American to head the Alabama state medical society; has a good story to tell regarding the rebuilding of a health clinic, post-Katrina
-- Just received a major MacArthur Foundation "genius grant"
-- Received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights
Some biographical links:
-- Reader's Digest on what she did post-Katrina
-- US News profile
-- Her Bayou Clinic bio
-- Her Kaiser Family Foundation Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured bio
-- Her National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health bio
-- News of her receipt of the Genius Award