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Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to address Penn graduates
He previously led U.S. public health response efforts across two administrations and during the pandemic.
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Malvika Choudhary - Fri, 27, Mar 2026
- 16:47 EDT
- 25
Vivek Murthy / Wikipedia
Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will deliver the commencement address to the 2026 graduating class of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania on May 17.
Announcing Murthy as the speaker, The school described him as a public health leader whose work has shaped national conversations on loneliness, youth mental health, the effects of social media, parental well-being and burnout among health workers.
Also Read: Former US Surgeon General Murthy joins Common Sense Media's board
Murthy, the first U.S. Surgeon General of Indian descent, served in the role from 2015 to 2017 and again from 2021 to 2025.
During his tenure, Murthy emerged as one of the country’s most prominent public health voices, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he co-chaired President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board before returning as Surgeon General in 2021.
The school said Murthy’s public health initiatives influenced discussions not only in healthcare, but also across business and nonprofit sectors. It also highlighted his 2025 “Parting Prescription for America,” which focused on rebuilding community and social connection as central to health and well-being.
Murthy also served as Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He is also the author of the 2020 New York Times bestselling book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.
Raised in Miami, Murthy graduated from Harvard College before earning his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine and MBA from the Yale School of Management. He later completed his internal medicine training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
During his time at Yale, he also helped launch “The Healer’s Art,” an elective designed to help medical students reflect on service, grief and physician burnout.
The Perelman School of Medicine’s commencement ceremony for M.D. graduates is scheduled for 9 a.m. on May 17 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and will also be broadcast for a wider audience.
The event will take place a day before the University of Pennsylvania’s university-wide commencement ceremony on May 18 at Franklin Field.
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