Do you have to finish a surgical residency to be Surgeon General?

[masaraksh]

.. Or can you do a non-surgical specialty instead?

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[WillburCobb]

No. I know at least one during the Clinton administration wasn't even a physician.

 

[Long Way to Go]

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/biographies/biosg.html

Dr. Lushniak was born in Chicago to post-World War II immigrants from Ukraine. He was admitted to the six-year Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University and completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Sciences in 1981 and obtained his medical degree (M.D.) in 1983. In 1984 he completed the Masters of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree at Harvard University. He completed a residency in family medicine in 1987 at St Joseph Hospital in Chicago and a residency in dermatology at the University of Cincinnati in 1993. RADM Lushniak maintains board certifications in dermatology and preventive medicine (occupational). He served as a staff physician in dermatology at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and is adjunct professor of dermatology at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences.​

You can get into public health research in a variety of ways. If the Secretary of HHS had a PhD public health researcher whom she or he liked, they would do just fine.

Robert Whitney, who served in the Clinton admin, was a veterinarian.