On the 19th of March 2024 the United States Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy joined Mary McHarg, UCL’s Students’ Union President to discuss the importance of relationships and forming social connections in maintaining our wellbeing at university.
About Dr. Vivek Murthy:
Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2021 to serve as the 21st Surgeon General of the United States. As the nation’s top doctor, Dr. Vivek Murthy helps to advance the health and well-being of all Americans and has worked to address critical public health issues. He has issued Surgeon General Advisories on the youth mental health crisis and social media’s impact on youth mental health, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation, and on burnout in the health worker community. Dr. Murthy also issued a Surgeon General’s Framework on mental health in the workplace and he is the first Surgeon General to host a podcast, House Calls with Dr. Vivek Murthy, where he invites guests and listeners to explore how we can all build more connected and meaningful lives.
As Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Murthy oversees more than 6,000 dedicated public health officers serving underserved and vulnerable populations.
Dr. Murthy previously served as the 19th Surgeon General under President Obama. Raised in Miami, Dr. Murthy received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard, his medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine, and his Masters in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management.
About Mary McHarg:
Mary McHarg is the current Students' Union UCL President and serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Students’ Union UCL. This follows a successful year as the Activities & Engagement Officer, where she co-wrote the Student Life Strategy and represented UCL’s wide range of sports clubs, societies, arts groups, and volunteering opportunities in various capacities.
Mary has a passion for student skills development and holistic curricula, having spoken at the UCL Education Conference, featured on Jisc discussions, and written for WonkHE. This is often influenced by various international experiences, having visited higher education institutions across Europe and attended the ACUI conference in North America. They have accrued a breadth of experience acting as a trustee of both Students' Union UCL and Somers Town Community Sports Centre in Camden, and looks forward to extending her representative work nationally through NUS and the Russell Group Students' Unions collective.
A recent graduate of UCL’s interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences degree program, Mary has experienced the full range of pre-to-post-COVID learning and assessment, across a range of disciplines including art, computer science, Russian language, and media studies. During their studies, Mary was the president of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Society and led an award-winning program of events for women, trans, and non-binary students, Space at the Table.