Dr. Randy Easterling, a family medicine and addiction medicine physician with River Region Medical Center, has been named to Gov. Phil Bryant’s Blue Ribbon Teen Pregnancy Prevention Task Force.

The goal of Bryant’s task force is to help curb the number of teen births in the state, which leads the nation in the category.

Easterling, a past president of The Mississippi State Medical Association, was appointed in 2003 by Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck to the Tort Claims Board. He also served on two of Gov. Haley Barbour’s Transition Subcommittees, Medicaid and Access to Health Care, and chaired Bryant’s Healthcare Transition Team.

Easterling is vice president of the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure and is a past president of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians. He chaired the Mississippi State Medical Association Counsel on legislation during its passing of landmark Tort Reform in 2004.

Easterling has been practicing family medicine in Vicksburg since 1987 and has been medical director of Marian Hill Chemical Dependency Unit since his arrival.

He is a graduate of The University of Mississippi School of Medicine and completed his residency at the College of Community Health Sciences at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He is a diplomat with American Society of Addiction Medicine.