Tag Archives: surgeon general

Yesterday, President Obama announced his pick for Surgeon General—Regina Benjamin, a primary care physician from Alabama whose resume would dazzle almost anyone in the medical community. Now that it’s been 24 hours, it’s becoming clear how the conversation about Benjamin will be framed. And, very sadly, the discussion seems to be about one thing: her body.

When I saw the headline, “Is Regina Benjamin too fat to be surgeon general?” over at Salon this morning, I choked on my iced coffee. Luckily, writer Frances Kissling says the answer is a big, resounding “no!” But others around the interwebs are coming to a different conclusion. Keep reading »

Barack Obama has nominated yet another woman for a super important post in his administration. This time around, Dr. Regina Benjamin is his pick to be the next Surgeon General. She’s a 52-year-old, African American family practice doctor who serves a poor community and often treats patients with no means of paying the bills. She has a father who died from diabetes, a mother who passed away from lung cancer due to smoking, and a brother who died from HIV-related complications. In other words, she’s got serious motivation to fight preventable illnesses that take lots of lives in the U.S. every year. Keep reading »