Sylvia Trent-Adams

Sylvia Trent-Adams (born June 15, 1965) is a retired U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps rear admiral, who last served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for health from January 2, 2019 to August 31, 2020. She previously served as the deputy surgeon general of the United States from October 25, 2015 to January 2, 2019. Trent-Adams also served as the acting surgeon general of the United States from April 21, 2017 to September 5, 2017. She retired from the U.S. Public Health Service on September 30, 2020 after over 33 years of combined uniformed service.

On October 5, 2020, Trent-Adams was named to the board of directors for AMN Healthcare. May 19, 2022, Trent-Adams was named to the board of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). From 2020-2022, Trent-Adams served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer at the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC), Fort Worth, TX. In 2022 she became the President of UNTHSC, and during her tenure the university was awarded a $150 million grant to research Alzheimer’s disease, the largest grant in the UNT system’s history. Dr. Trent-Adams also oversaw the launch of a new College of Nursing at UNTHSC. She stepped down as President on January 31, 2025. The decision comes months after an NBC News investigation exposed the center’s practice of dissecting and leasing out unclaimed corpses without the consent of families or next of kin. NBC News reported in September that over five years, the Fort Worth-based center had acquired approximately 2,350 unclaimed bodies from local counties. This operation generated about $2.5 million annually. On July 14, Trent-Adams became President and CEO of IHI.