Antonia Coello Novello is a Puerto Rican physician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as 14th Surgeon General of the United States from 1990 to 1993. Novello was the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General. Novello also served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New York from 1999 to 2006. Novello has received numerous awards including more than fifty honorary degrees,was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2000,and has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her memoir,Duty Calls:Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service,was published in 2024.
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.
Kenneth P. Moritsugu is an American physician and public health administrator who was the first Asian American U.S. Surgeon General.
Gale S. Pollock is a retired United States Army major general who served as the Deputy Surgeon General of the United States Army from October 2006 to March 2007,and also as chief of the Army Nurse Corps. She became acting Surgeon General of the United States Army for nine months following the 20 March 2007 retirement of her predecessor,Kevin C. Kiley,due to fallout from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal. She was the first woman and the first non-physician to hold the position.
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.
James Edwin McPherson is an American government official and retired United States Navy rear admiral. He served as the General Counsel of the Army from January 2,2018,to March 24,2020. He served as the United States Under Secretary of the Army from March 25,2020,to January 20,2021,and in acting capacity from July 23,2019,to March 24,2020. He served as Acting United States Secretary of the Navy from April 7,2020,to May 29,2020,following the resignation of Thomas Modly.
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.
Rear Admiral Edward Dana Martin is the former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense. He was appointed to two terms,originally in 1993 and again in 1997. Martin served as the Secretary's principal advisor on matters related to the military health system,health.mil. The Military Health System's (MHS) mission is to provide optimal health services in support of the United States' military mission. The MHS is a unique partnership of medical educators,medical researchers,healthcare providers and their support personnel worldwide. This DoD enterprise consists of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense;the medical departments of the Army,Navy,Marine Corps,Air Force,Coast Guard,and Joint Chiefs of Staff;the Combatant Command surgeons;and TRICARE providers.
David Peter Pekoske is a former American government official and retired U.S. Coast Guard vice admiral who served as the seventh administrator of the Transportation Security Administration in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2017 to 2025. He served as the acting deputy secretary of homeland security from April to November 2019 and again from January to June 2021. From January 20,2021 to February 2,2021 he served as acting secretary of homeland security,during the Senate confirmation of Alejandro Mayorkas. Pekoske retired with 33 years of active military service in 2010 as the 26th vice commandant of the Coast Guard.. On January 20,2025 he was fired and is no longer the TSA Administrator.
Rear Admiral Karen Ann Flaherty assumed duties as the Deputy Surgeon General of Navy Medicine at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery as of August 6,2010. Flaherty served as the 22nd Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps as well as the Deputy Chief,Wounded,Ill,and Injured at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery from 2009 to 2010.
Boris Lushniak is a retired United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps rear admiral who served as the acting Surgeon General of the United States,from July 17,2013 to December 18,2014. He previously served as the Deputy Surgeon General from 2010 to 2013 and from 2014 to 2015 when Vivek Murthy assumed office as Surgeon General. He retired from the Public Health Service on December 8,2015 after over 27 years of service. On October 4,2016 he was appointed dean of the University of Maryland,College Park School of Public Health,effective January 9,2017.
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 Dr. Nathan Davis Awards are presented annually by the American Medical Association (AMA) and awarded to elected and career public servants in national,state,and local governments for outstanding government service. These awards are named for the founder of the American Medical Association,Nathan Smith Davis.
Donald Lauren Custis was an American vice admiral in the United States Navy who served as Surgeon General of the United States Navy from 1973 to 1976. He later served as chief medical director for the Veterans Administration from 1980 to 1984.
The Gorgas Medal was originally established as an annual award in 1915 by the Medical Reserve Corps Association of New York in honor of Surgeon General William C. Gorgas,U.S. Army. The award was based on a writing competition open to members of the U.S. Army Medical Corps,the U.S. Army Medical Reserve Corps,and to Medical Corps members of other “organized militia”. Surgeon General Gorgas appointed Colonel Charles Richard,Lieutenant Colonel Champe C. McCulloch,Jr.,and Major Eugene R. Whitmore,Medical Corps,to form a review board and act as judge and jury for the writing competition. These officers were members of the Army Medical School faculty.
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.
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.
