Local Health Professional attends Swearing-In Ceremony for new US Surgeon General

WASHINGTON, DC – January 11, 2010 –  It is nice to know folks in high places.  Isiah Lineberry, Development Director for Orangeburg’s Singleton Health Center was in Washington, D.C. Monday attending the swearing-in of our country’s 18^th Surgeon General.  Lineberry was personally invited by Surgeon General Regina Benjamin to attend the ceremonies. 

Lineberry says he and Vice Admiral Benjamin first met years ago when they both were working on rural health care grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  He says that he could tell while working with her at the Penn State University School of Medicine, she was someone special, Over 700 family and friends gathered in the Ronald Regan Building’s Amphitheatre for the ceremony.  This was the most attendees ever for the swearing in of a Surgeon General.

Benjamin, an Alabama native, was appointed to the Surgeon General post last July by President Obama.  She was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in October.  In accepting the nomination, she made clear her dissatisfaction with the current health care system, in terms of both accessibility and cost. Benjamin described her own hardships faced by disease and illness; her brother died of HIV; her father died of high blood pressure and diabetes; and her mother died of lung cancer. All of which, she implied, were preventable diseases.

Lineberry predicts that Benjamin will be an ally with rural health advocates, I was impressed that one of her major priorities will be wellness and prevention.  Benjamin is founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. Bayou La Batre is a small shrimping village along the Gulf Coast.  Benjamin’s clinic was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and in 2006 by a fire on New Year’s Day, one day before the scheduled reopening. She made headlines when she rebuilt the clinic a second time.

Lineberry is a native of West Virginia.  He has a broad background in health care management having served as Executive Director of the Georgia Office of Rural Health Services and several other related positions.  Aware of his experience and varied background, Orangeburg physician Monnie Singleton invited Lineberry to become Singleton Health Center’s Director of Development. The practice concentrates on providing health care access to the rural community.  They currently have three locations and have plans on expanding and adding another office in the near future.  Lineberry and his wife, Shelia live in Orangeburg.