Page 6 - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing - December 5, 2024 - Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health

Georges C. Benjamin, MD is known as one of the
nation’s most influential physician leaders because he speaks
passionately and eloquently about the health issues having the
most impact on our nation today. From his firsthand experience
as a physician, he knows what happens when preventive care is
not available and when the healthy choice is not the easy choice.

As executive director of APHA since 2002, he is leading the
Association’s push to make America the healthiest nation.

He came to APHA from his position as secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene. Benjamin became secretary of health in Maryland in April 1999, following
four years as its deputy secretary for public health services. As secretary, Benjamin oversaw
the expansion and improvement of the state’s Medicaid program.

Benjamin, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology and

the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

He is board-certified in internal medicine and a master of the American College of
Physicians, a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a fellow emeritus of
the American College of Emergency Physicians, an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Public
Health and an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.

An established administrator, author, and orator, Benjamin started his medical career as a
military physician in 1978 when he trained in internal medicine at the Brooke Army Medical
Center. In 1981, he was assigned to the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma,
Washington, where he managed a 72,000-patient visit ambulatory care service as chief of
the Acute Illness Clinic and was faculty and an attending physician within the Department of
Emergency Medicine. A few years later, he was reassigned to the Walter Reed Army Medical
Center in Washington, D.C., where he served as chief of emergency medicine. After leaving
the Army, he chaired the Department of Community Health and Ambulatory Care at the
District of Columbia General Hospital. He was promoted to acting commissioner for public
health for the District of Columbia and later directed one of the busiest ambulance services