19th U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy Elected to RAND Board of Trustees

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, 19th Surgeon General of the United States, has been elected to the RAND Corporation Board of Trustees, RAND President and CEO Michael D. Rich announced today.

During Dr. Murthy's term (December 2014-April 2017) as Surgeon General, he published the first Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health, which placed drug and alcohol addiction alongside smoking, AIDS and other public health crises of the past 50 years. It presented a vision for a comprehensive, effective and humane public health approach to addressing addiction. As the Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Murthy also oversaw a uniformed service of 6,700 public health officers, serving the most vulnerable populations domestically and abroad.

Dr. Murthy has consistently emphasized the importance of prevention in addressing the U.S.' most serious public health problems.

“I am pleased to welcome Dr. Murthy to the Board of Trustees, especially given our substantial and growing research portfolio on issues such as the opioid crisis and on social and economic policies,” Rich said. “His expertise communicating the implications and significance of research findings to the public will be of great benefit to RAND.”

Dr. Murthy's commitment to medicine and health began early in life. The son of immigrants from India, he discovered the art of healing in his father's medical clinic in Miami. A believer in the power of community, he and his sister co-founded VISIONS, a peer-to-peer HIV/AIDS education program in India, and Swasthya (“health and wellbeing” in Sanskrit), a community health partnership that trained women to defy the odds in their patriarchal villages and become health care providers and educators.

As a healthcare entrepreneur, Dr. Murthy co-founded TrialNetworks, a technology company that improves research collaboration in clinical trials around the world. He also co-founded Doctors for America, a non-profit organization with more than 16,000 physician and medical student members from all 50 states dedicated to creating a high quality, affordable health care system.

Dr. Murthy received his bachelor's degree from Harvard and his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Yale. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and later joined Harvard Medical School as faculty in internal medicine. His research focused on vaccine development and later on the participation of women and minorities in clinical trials. Dr. Murthy resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and two young children.