Former Indian American Surgeon General Vivek Murthy joins Common Sense Media Board of Directors

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (TIP): Former Indian American U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has joined the Board of Directors of Common Sense Media to add public health expertise to the organization.
Murthy will bring his decades of medical expertise to Common Sense Media’s efforts to build a healthier digital landscape for children and families everywhere, according to a media release.
Dr. Vivek Murthy served as the 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States, serving from 2015 to 2017 and 2021 to 2025 in the Obama and Biden administrations.
In 2023, he issued an advisory on the effects of social media on youth mental health. The following year, he called for warning labels on addictive social media platforms, an effort that Common Sense Media strongly supports.
“With Dr. Murthy’s extraordinary guidance, Common Sense Media will be able to double down on our efforts to better understand and tackle technology’s role in the youth mental health crisis,” said Common Sense Media Founder and CEO James P. Steyer.
“He is a truly unique addition to our leadership team of policy experts, joining our Board at a time when substantive expertise and insights into tech’s impact on kids’ mental health are needed more than ever. His remarkable wealth of knowledge and global leadership role will be invaluable at a time when AI, including unsafe AI companion chatbots, poses an increasing threat to the mental health and well-being of our kids and families across the nation and globally.”
During his two terms as Surgeon General, Dr. Murthy’s initiatives shaped national and international conversations and compelled change across business and non-profit organizations, according to the release.
He has drawn attention to critical and under-appreciated health issues, including the epidemic of loneliness, parental mental health and well-being, the youth mental health crisis, and health worker burnout.
Common Sense Media’s ratings, research, and resources reach more than 150 million users worldwide and over 1.4 million educators and more than 100K schools worldwide every year.
Born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire to immigrants from Karnataka, India, Dr. Murthy is the grandson of the late H C Narayana Murthy, the former director of Mysore Sugar Company, and son of Florida-based H N Lakshmi Narasimha Murthy and Maithreya Murthy.
In 1978, the family crossed the Atlantic to Newfoundland, where his father worked as a district medical officer. When he was three years old, the family relocated to Miami, and his parents established their medical practice.
Dr. Murthy is a graduate of Harvard, the Yale School of Medicine, and the Yale School of Management.