Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, the Brevard County native and award‑winning, board‑certified family medicine physician currently serving our nation as Acting U.S. Surgeon General and director of national health communications for the Office of the Surgeon General, visited Florida Tech on Friday, Nov. 6.
A longtime Brevard resident with more than 20 years of medical experience, Dr. Haridopolos previously led a thriving family practice in Melbourne. She is married to Mike Haridopolos, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida’s 8th district, which includes the Space Coast.
In addition to touring the Bioengineering and Sciences Building, Dr. Haridopolos met with Florida Tech President John Nicklow and spoke to a classroom full of bioengineering students (and one psychology major) in that building.
Dr. Haridopolos traced her remarkable life and career from being born with a congenital heart defect to her impact as a public health advocate in Florida and her ascension to key roles in the highest levels of federal health operations.
After surgery to repair her heart defect as a child, she knew what her path would be.
“So I set my North Star at a very young age, and I knew then I wanted to give back,” she told the students.
Dr. Haridopolos would go on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from Stetson University in Florida in 1994 (where she first met one Mike Haridopolos), becoming the first in her family to attend college. She then earned a medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in 1998 and went on to complete her residency at Albany Medical College in New York in 2002.
Her success and impact as a public health advocate at major state-level positions in Florida, including as chair of the Board of Directors for the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation where she led a successful effort to expand eligibility for subsidized children’s healthcare coverage, won Dr. Haridopolos Florida’s Outstanding Woman in Public Health 2024 by the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health.
In January 2025, after two decades of impactful health policy in Florida that improved the lives of thousands, Dr. Haridopolos was appointed to the Office of the Surgeon General in 2025.
In what could be a blueprint for their future success, she told the assembled students that she soon realized there were ways to make changes, to improve things, from within.
“When you figure out what levers you have and what changes you can make when you are there, then it’s magical because you could say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a problem that exists,’ and just a tweak in policy can make such a substantial impact to improve the health of so many,” she said.
She added, “You wouldn’t believe what you could possibly do when you really put your mind to it and come up with problem-solving issues and employ them and implement them.”
In addition to her role as National Health Communications director for the Office of the Surgeon General, where she performs many of the duties of the U.S. Surgeon General, she is also Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health–Policy within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health.
In these roles, Dr. Haridopolos has led high‑impact national public health initiatives that have strengthened federal messaging, empowered families, and advanced health protections nationwide.
She issued the Office of the Surgeon General’s Screen‑Time Advisory, warning of the health risks associated with excessive youth screen use, and launched the “Live Real Life” campaign, providing communities with tools to encourage healthier digital habits.
It is a situation that is relevant to us all, she told the students.
“I believe we are all affected, whether you are a kid or an adult,” she said. “I think it affects relationships, I think about people getting chatbot girlfriends and boyfriends, people having problems with connectivity and relationships and eye contact and being able to talk to their colleagues and socialize.
“I think it is driving a mental health crisis.”
