WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- President Obama announced Monday his choice for surgeon general -- Dr. Regina Benjamin , a 52-year-old family practice doctor who has spent most of her career tending to the needs of poor patients in a Gulf Coast clinic in Alabama . Dr. Regina Benjamin holds advanced degrees in medicine and business administration . `` When people could n't pay , she did n't charge them , '' Obama said . `` When the clinic was n't making money , she did n't take a salary for herself . '' He called Benjamin `` a relentless promoter '' of programs to fight preventable illness . Benjamin cited the toll of preventable illness as the reason her family was not with her at the announcement : Her father died with diabetes and high blood pressure ; her older brother and only sibling died at age 44 of an HIV-related illness ; her mother died of lung cancer after taking up smoking as a girl ; her mother 's twin brother could not attend because he is at home `` struggling for each breath '' after a lifetime of smoking . `` I can not change my family 's past , but I can be a voice to improve our nation 's health for the future , '' she said . Watch for more on Benjamin » . Benjamin received a bachelor 's degree in 1979 from Xavier University of Louisiana , attended Morehouse School of Medicine from 1980 to 1982 , and received a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1984 . She completed her residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in 1987 . Her medical training was paid for by a federal program , the National Health Service Corps , under which medical students promise to work in areas with few doctors in exchange for free tuition , one year of service for every year of paid tuition . Benjamin founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in 1990 in the fishing village of Bayou La Batre , Alabama , and has served as its CEO since . Like many of her patients , the clinic has suffered its own life-threatening challenges . It was heavily damaged by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 . It also burned to the ground several years ago . But Benjamin rebuilt it after each setback and has continued to offer medical care to the village 's 2,500 residents . Her commitment to them has meant making house calls during the rebuilding , mortgaging her house and maxing out her credit cards , Obama said . `` Regina Benjamin has refused to give up ; her patients have refused to give up , '' he said . Many of her family practice patients are immigrants from Vietnam , Cambodia and Laos who make up a third of Bayou La Batre 's population , and many of them are uninsured . Benjamin 's expertise goes beyond medicine ; she earned a master 's in business administration in 1991 from Tulane University . But her focus has not been on making money for herself , she said . `` My priority has always been the needs of my patients , '' she said . `` I decided to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay . '' Benjamin said she has worked for years to scrape together the resources needed to keep the clinic doors open and found `` it has not been an easy road . ... It should not be this hard for doctors and other health care providers to care for their patients . '' She praised Obama `` for putting health care reform at the top of your domestic agenda , '' and said she hopes , if confirmed by the Senate , `` to be America 's doctor , America 's family physician . '' `` As we work toward a solution to this health care crisis , I promise to communicate directly to the American people , to help guide them through whatever changes come with health care reform . I want to make sure that no one falls through the cracks , '' she said . A call to the clinic , where Benjamin was working last week , found it in full swing . `` We are just packed in with patients right now , and I 'm the only one at the front office , '' said a breathless woman who then hung up . Benjamin has served as the associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama 's College of Medicine and as president of the State of Alabama Medical Association , from 2002-2003 . She was the first African-American woman board member of the American Medical Association , and she just served a term as chairwoman of the group 's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs . The position of surgeon general , whose effectiveness is largely in its use as a bully pulpit , requires Senate confirmation .
Dr. Regina Benjamin is a rural American physician . She founded and rebuilt medical clinic in a fishing village in Alaska . Many of her patients are uninsured , according to the MacArthur Foundation . Benjamin received a ` ` genius grant '' from the MacArthur Foundation .