PHP junkie?

Can anybody help me with this simple code that I can't get straightened out? If have a dropdown box that is dynamically populated from a database query... that part works fine:

BUT, after selecting the value from the dropdown, and properly displaying the data I want on the screen, the dropdown value resets to the first element in the list.

When I designate the dropdown values manually, it works:

I'm pretty sure I need to add the "selected" operator to my dynamically populated dropdown --- but I can't figure out where/how. Any suggestions?