Midwestern State University alumnus Dr. Michael K. Obeng, who delivered the MSU Texas commencement address in May 2016, is in the national news this week after performing surgery on the woman whose hair was Gorilla Glued for more than a month.

Obeng, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, performed the surgery, usually a $12,500 procedure, for free, according to reports by TMZ.com. Tessica Brown flew from Louisiana to L.A. to have the procedure performed by Obeng.

Obeng came to MSU from Ghana. He saw a flyer about the university in a friend's dorm room and knew it was in Texas, but that was all. While an MSU student, Obeng laid carpet, worked for Golden Corral, and drove a school bus for the Wichita Falls Independent School District. His bed was one he rescued from someone else's trash, and he and his roommate alternated sleeping on it and the floor. After his first semester at MSU, he got a job at the Moffett Library and eventually landed a job as a residence assistant that paid his room and board, a big relief for a struggling student.

Graduating cum laude with a major in chemistry in 1997, Obeng then attended and received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and completed post-graduate work in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the UT Medical Branch John Sealy Hospitals for Children before accepting a fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Obeng is currently on staff at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, Calif., and is a noted author and lecturer on health-care disparities around the globe.