AACN Congratulates RADM Susan Orsega on Her Appointment as Acting U.S. Surgeon General

AACN congratulates Rear Admiral (RADM) Susan Orsega, MSN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, on her appointment by President Joe Biden to be Acting Surgeon General of the United States. RADM Orsega has been Director of Commissioned Corps Headquarters at the Office of the Surgeon General since 2019. She is among the first nurses to serve in the role of surgeon general.  RADM Orsega will hold the position until President Biden's nominee for the job, Dr. Vivek Murthy, is confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

RADM Orsega earned her BSN from Towson University in Maryland and an MSN from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences Nurse Practitioner program. In 2013, she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She was inducted as a fellow in the Academy of Nursing in 2016.

Prior to her appointment as Acting Surgeon General, RADM Orsega led the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (Corps) Nurse Professional Affairs and advised the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services on the recruitment, assignment, deployment, retention, and career development of Corps nurse professionals. She also served as a Senior Program Officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

The Surgeon General provides Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury and brings the best available scientific information to the public by issuing Surgeon General’s Advisories, Calls to Action, and Reports on critical issues and communicating directly with the public via a number of communication channels.