Former Surgeon General of the United States Vivek Murthy has been named to Joseph Biden’s Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, along with David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith. Murthy served as UH Mānoa commencement speaker in Spring 2017, and he will be rejoining us for a live online conversation with Maya Soetoro and Josh Green on January 6, 2020 at 4:00 pm Hawai‘i time.

As Surgeon General, Murthy launched national initiatives to address the opioid crisis and to alleviate chronic stress and isolation. A specialist in internal medicine, he received MD and MBA degrees from Yale and conducted research on vaccine development and clinical trials. He is the co-founder of three organizations: VISIONS, an HIV education program; Swasthya, a community health partnership for
women in rural India; and TrialNetworks, which enhances the efficiency of clinical trials. His book,
Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, is a New York Times
bestseller.