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Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA Founder of Southern rural health clinic and authority on health disparities Keynote Fee : $5,001 - $10,000 plus expenses  Fee Note Travels From: AL ADD SPEAKER TO LIST  |   PRINT BIO   |  PREVIEW VIDEO

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Making a Difference: Everyone Can Be a Leader

In this presentation, Dr. Benjamin shares her personal story of making a real difference in the lives of indigent residents in and around Bayou La Batre, Alabama, a small shrimping village on the Gulf of Mexico with a population of 2,500. She gives witness to the dedication of a single change agent, impelled by the mission of Catholic healthcare, to do good and make a difference in the lives of others. Sharing inspirational stories of her patients and examples of community involvement, Dr. Benjamin illustrates how leadership starts with the small things, and how everyone can be a leader.

Treating the Working Poor: Medicaid and the Uninsured

In this presentation, Dr. Benjamin shares her personal story of making a real difference in the lives of indigent residents in and around the small Gulf Coast shrimping village of Bayou La Batre, Alabama. She gives witness to the dedication of a single change agent to affect positive change in the lives of the people in this small community, using real-life stories from her experiences to illustrate the challenges facing the working poor. Dr. Benjamin shares updates on national policies, their effects on the patients she treats, and the ensuing difficulties she experiences in order to keep her clinic doors open. In addition to years working on policy development in this area, Dr. Benjamin is a member of the Kaiser Family Foundation Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Health Disparities: "If It Could Happen in My Practice..."

A solo physician making a real difference in the lives of indigent residents in and around the small Gulf Coast shrimping village of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, Dr. Benjamin describes the often shocking realities of racial and ethnic health disparities in our healthcare system. Through stories of her many patients and specific examples of community involvement, Dr. Benjamin illustrates the importance of individual leadership when dealing with difficulties that exist in this arena. A member of the NIH National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities national advisory committee, and the Sullivan Commission on Diversifying the Healthcare Workforce, Dr. Benjamin offers an experienced and unique perspective on this particular challenge in healthcare.

How's Your Health: Improving the Quality of Healthcare Service

Sharing information based on decades of research, Dr. Benjamin discusses how to make your health " and healthcare " as good as it can be. She explains how we can insure that we're "on the same page" as our doctors, and the role each of us play in helping our physicians improve the quality and service they provide to us. Dr. Benjamin brings the perspective of her membership in the IOM "Crossing the Quality Chasm" Summit committee and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) national advisory committee.

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Speaker Information

Named by Time magazine as one of the "Nation's 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under," Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, is Founder and CEO of the BayouClinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.

Following graduation from Xavier University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Dr. Benjamin chose to return to the region in which she grew up, opening a family practice in Bayou la Batre, a small shrimping village along the Gulf Coast. In an area where need, not money, is prevalent, most of Dr. Benjamin's patients hold low-paying jobs that do not provide them with any health insurance.

Since 1990, Benjamin has been the sole family physician in this impoverished Gulf Coast town of 2,500 residents. She kept her clinic financially afloat by moonlighting in emergency rooms and nursing homes. When Hurricane Georges wrecked the building in 1998, she spent the next two years treating patients out of her Ford pickup. After earning her MBA from Tulane University, Dr. Benjamin converted her office to a rural health clinic dedicated to serving the community.

Dr. Benjamin's extraordinary dedication and self-sacrifice have earned her consistent national media attention. Featured in a New York Times article labeling her as an "Angel in a White Coat," she was named "Person of the Week" on ABC's "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" and "Woman of the Year" by "CBS This Morning." She was featured on the December 1999 cover of Clarity magazine, appeared on the January 2003 cover of Reader's Digest, and has been featured in numerous other publications, including Redbook, Southern Living, People, Coastal Living, and Good Housekeeping. Despite the nationwide media recognition for her efforts, Dr. Benjamin insists that the greater reward is achieved "in the individual patient, one at a time."

Dr. Benjamin is former Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile where she administered the Alabama-AHEC program and USA Telemedicine Program. 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. In 2002 she became President of the Medical Association State of Alabama, making her the first African American female president of a State Medical Society in the United States. Dr. Benjamin is also co-author of the book How's Your Health? What You Can Do To Make Your Health and Health Care Better.

A member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, Dr. Benjamin is also 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 National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She is former chair of the USMLE Step 3 Committee and member of the National Board of Medical Examiners. In Alabama, Dr. Benjamin 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. She has also spent time doing missionary work in Honduras and is a former Board Member of Physicians for Human Rights.

Dr. Benjamin is also one of the most inspirational speakers available to today's healthcare community. Consistently guided by a strong sense of social conscience, she stresses the importance individual leadership, particularly when dealing with such societal issues as racial and ethnic health disparities in our healthcare system and the challenges faced when treating the working poor. A strong proponent of community involvement, she emphasizes the importance of continually working to improve the quality of healthcare service. She's also an inspiring example of the intangible benefits available to anyone who is committed to making a difference.

Within the United States, Dr. Benjamin says solving our country's healthcare woes will require societal change: an overhaul of policies, broader insurance systems, and better distribution of physicians nationwide. Her prescription for the small shrimping village of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, is simple: Give treatment to all patients, whether they can pay or not.

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Testimonials

"Thank you for your presentation of empowerment, hope, optimism, and inspiration. Your outstanding and insightful presentation...captured our audience with your personal approach and warmth. You earned their friendship with your candid discussion of your real life experiences which empowered each individual to make a difference in his or her community."

- Patient Advocate Foundation

"Dr. Benjamin brought a realism to health care that we needed at our conference. She humanized how important it is for our attendees to stay involved in Medicaid. We would love to have her speak to our group again."

- Medicaid Health Plans of America

"Thank you so much for the valuable contribution you made to the...conference. "Moving and inspiring" were adjectives used by many to describe the impact of your message."

- American Academy of Family Physicians

"...a socially conscious, compassionate family physician."

- National Governor's Association