Regina Benjamin

"It feels good when you help someone, when you make them smile, when you make a difference in their lives, when you stop the hurt. And you sleep well at night. To me, that’s the best reward. If I had to go purchase that through a mail-order catalogue or something, that’s what I’d buy."

"When you’re face-to-face with a patient, you can’t worry about the fact that they can’t pay."

"My family is not here with me today, at least not in person, because of preventable diseases. While I can’t change my family’s past, I can be a voice in the movement to improve our nation’s health care and our nation’s health for the future."

"I hope I make a difference one person at a time. By making a patient feel better, by being able to tell a mother that her baby is going to be okay. Whether her baby is 4 or 44, the look on the mother’s face is the same."

"Prevention is at the foundation of everything. We've got to prevent people from getting sick in the first place"

"doing it from the grassroots. A good health care system depends on the health of the community, which ultimately lies with the health of the individual"