President Bush Announces Nominees for NIH Director, Surgeon General, Associated Press Reports
President Bush is expected today to nominate Arizona trauma surgeon Dr. Richard Carmona to be the next surgeon general and Dr. Elias Zerhouni, executive vice dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, to head the NIH, the AP/Washington Post reports. Bush announced that he would nominate Zerhouni for the NIH position, which has been vacant for more than two years, earlier this month. Bush has been looking for a surgeon general since David Satcher announced his departure last year. The AP/Post reports that the Bush administration was "dazzled" by Carmona's resume, which "reads like a Hollywood script." Carmona, a registered independent, was born in New York City, dropped out of high school, fought in the Vietnam War as an Army Green Beret, earned his GED and graduated from college and medical school. In 1985, he founded the first trauma care system in southern Arizona and a year later joined his local sheriff's department as a SWAT team member. Zerhouni and Carmona both must be confirmed by the Senate (Sobieraj, AP/Washington Post, 3/26).
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