Keynote Session Speaker: Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA

Keynote Topic: Eliminating Health Disparities

Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, is Founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. She is also Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile where she administers the Alabama-AHEC program and formally its Telemedicine Program.

She is immediate past President of the Medical Association, 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 Board of Trustees, making her the first physician under age 40 and the first African-American woman to be elected. She also served as President of the American Medical Association Education and Research Foundation (AMA-ERF) and is a current member of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.

Born in 1956, Dr. Benjamin attended Xavier University in New Orleans, and was a member of the second class of Morehouse School of Medicine. She received her MD degree from the University of Alabama Birmingham. She completed her residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia. After entering solo practice in Bayou La Batre, Alabama (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. She received an MBA from Tulane University, and converted her office to a rural health clinic.

Dr. Benjamin is a member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, 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. Some of her numerous board memberships have included the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Catholic Health East, Federation of State Medical Boards, Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, Alabama State Committee of Public Health, Alabama Rural Health Association, Leadership Alabama, Mobile Area Red Cross, Mercy Medical, Mobile Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Mobile, and Former Vice President Deep South Girl Scout Council. She is also a Trustee of Birmingham Southern University and Florida A&M University.

She was appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act Committee (CLIAC), the Council of Graduate Medical Education (COGME), and the NIH Committee on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She is chair of the USMLE Step 3 Committee and a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners. In Alabama, she served as Vice President of the Governor's Commission on Aging, and was 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," "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, "Woman of the Year" by CBS This Morning, and recently in People Magazine. She was featured on the December 1999 cover of Clarity Magazine, received the 2000 National Caring Award which was inspired by Mother Teresa, and on the Jan 2003 cover of Reader's Digest.

Consistent with her strong social conscience, Dr. Benjamin spent time doing missionary work in Honduras and is a former Board Member of Physicians for Human Rights. Her interests include environmental issues, eco and adventure travel.