The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. The surgeon general's office and staff are known as the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG),which is housed within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health.
The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is the uniformed service branch of the United States Public Health Service and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. The commissioned corps' primary mission is the protection,promotion,and advancement of health and safety of the general public.
James Ostermann Mason was an American medical doctor and public health administrator. He was the United States Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) from 1989 to 1993 and the Acting Surgeon General of the United States from 1989 to 1990. As the ASH he was also a former four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He was also a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
David Satcher is an American physician,and public health administrator. He is a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the 11th Assistant Secretary for Health,and the 16th Surgeon General of the United States.
Eleanor Concepcion "Connie" Mariano,is a Filipino American physician and retired flag officer in the United States Navy. She is the first Filipino American and graduate of the Uniformed Services University of Medicine to reach the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy as well as the second woman to become Physician to the President,a position that placed her as director of the White House Medical Unit.
Frederick A. Murphy is a retired American virologist. He was a member of the team of scientists that discovered the Ebola virus at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),where he served as Chief of Viropathology,near Emory University in Atlanta,Georgia,in 1976,and is internationally known for his work on rabies,encephalitis and hemorrhagic fevers,with over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles. Murphy was as an electron microscopy pioneer in the field of virology,best recognized for obtaining the first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle at the CDC in 1976.
A rear admiral in four of the uniformed services of the United States is one of two distinct ranks of commissioned officers;"rear admiral (lower half)," a one-star flag officer,and "rear admiral" (sometimes referred to as "rear admiral (upper half)"),a two-star flag officer. The two ranks are only utilized by the United States Navy,U.S. Coast Guard,U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps,and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps. In contrast,in most other nations' rank-bearing services,the term "rear admiral" refers exclusively to two-star flag officer rank.
Steven Kenneth Galson is an American public health physician. He is currently a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group and Independent Board Member at Biocryst Pharmaceuticals and Elephas Biosciences. Until 2021 he was Senior Vice President for Research and Development at Amgen,the California-based biopharmaceutical company. He is also a Trustee and Professor-at-Large at the Keck Graduate Institute for Applied Life Sciences in Claremont,California. He is a retired rear admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and public health administrator who served as the acting Surgeon General of the United States from October 1,2007 –October 1,2009. He served concurrently as acting Assistant Secretary for Health from January 22 to June 25,2009,and as the Deputy Director and Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration from 2001 to 2007. As the Acting Surgeon General,he was the commander of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and,while serving as the Assistant Secretary for Health,was the operational head of the Public Health Service.
Doctors for America is a 501(c)(3) national,multi-specialty organization of physicians and medical students in the United States with a stated goal of improving affordable health care access. The movement,which was created by the Obama campaign,was started in 2008 as "Doctors for Obama" and rapidly grew to 10,000 members within a few months. It was founded by Alice Chen,Vivek Murthy,and Mandy Cohen.
The University of Maryland School of Public Health is located in College Park,Maryland. U.S. News &World Report ranked the school 25th among all schools and programs of public health in 2024. Its departments include Behavioral and Community Health;Epidemiology and Biostatistics;Family Science;Health Policy and Management;and Kinesiology. It also includes the Department of Global,Environmental,and Occupational Health;the Herschel S. Horowitz Center for Health Literacy;the Maryland Center for Health Equity;and the Prevention Research Center.
Vivek Hallegere Murthy is a British-American physician and a vice admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who served as the 19th and 21st surgeon general of the United States under Presidents Barack Obama,Donald Trump,and Joe Biden. Murthy is the first surgeon general of Indian descent,and during his first term as surgeon general was the youngest active duty flag officer in federal uniformed service.
The Paul &Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans,founded by Paul Soros and Daisy Soros in 1997,is a United States postgraduate fellowship for immigrants and children of immigrants. In 2021,the fellowship received 2,445 applications and awarded 30 fellowships for a selection rate of 1.2%. Each fellow receives up to $90,000 in funding toward their graduate education,which can be in any field and at any university at the U.S. The fellowship,which honors the contributions of immigrants to the U.S.,was founded in 1997. In 2010,the couple had contributed a total of $75 million to the organization's charitable trust.
Jerome Michael Adams is an American anesthesiologist and a former vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who served as the 20th surgeon general of the United States from September 5,2017,until January 20,2021. Prior to becoming Surgeon General,he served as the Indiana state health commissioner,from 2014 to 2017.
Stephen C. Redd is a U.S. physician and rear admiral with the U.S. Public Health Service and an Assistant Surgeon General. With over 30 years of public health and executive leadership experience,Redd served as the Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously,he was the Director of the CDC's Influenza Coordination Unit,where he served as the incident commander for the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic influenza response.
Sylvia Trent-Adams is a retired U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps rear admiral,who last served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for health from January 2,2019 to August 31,2020. She previously served as the deputy surgeon general of the United States from October 25,2015 to January 2,2019. Trent-Adams also served as the acting surgeon general of the United States from April 21,2017 to September 5,2017. She retired from the U.S. Public Health Service on September 30,2020 after over 33 years of combined uniformed service. On October 5,2020,Trent-Adams was named to the board of directors for AMN Healthcare.
Erica G. Schwartz is a retired U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps rear admiral who last served as the deputy surgeon general of the United States from January 2019 to April 2021. As a Commissioned Corps officer,she served with the U.S. Coast Guard as their Chief of Health Services and Chief of Preventive Medicine at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters and became its principal expert on flu pandemics. Prior to becoming Deputy Surgeon General,she served as the Coast Guard's Chief Medical Officer from 2015 to 2019. She retired in April 2021 after over 27 years of combined uniformed service.
Alice Chen is an American physician who is an assistant clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has previously been a Hauser Visiting Leader at Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership and assistant clinical professor position at the George Washington University in Washington,D.C. Chen was a founding member and former director of the nonprofit organization Doctors for America.
The COVID-19 Advisory Board was announced in November 2020 by President-elect of the United States Joe Biden as part of his presidential transition. It was co-chaired by physicians David A. Kessler,Marcella Nunez-Smith,and Vivek Murthy and comprises 13 health experts. The board was then succeeded by the White House COVID-19 Response Team upon Biden's presidency in January 2021.
Bruce Lindsley Gillingham is a retired United States Navy rear admiral and orthopedic surgeon who last served as the 39th surgeon general of the United States Navy from 2019 to 2023. As surgeon general,Gillingham was dual-hatted as the 43rd chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and was responsible to the United States Secretary of the Navy,Chief of Naval Operations and director of the Defense Health Agency for all health and medical matters pertaining to the Navy and Marine Corps.
United States 
U.S. Public Health Service 
Rear Admiral 
USPHS Commissioned Corps 
