Sylvia Trent-Adams, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP — the executive vice president and chief strategy officer at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, former leader of the U.S. Public Health Service, and the first female nurse to serve as U.S. surgeon general — will deliver “The New Normal: Preparedness for Better Health — Where Do We Go from Here?” at the 59th annual Harriet Cook Carter Lecture at Duke University School of Nursing from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 24.  

The event is a hybrid program. Duke students, faculty and staff are invited to the in-person lecture in the Christine Siegler Pearson Building, Room 1014; the program will also be livestreamed via Zoom, with simultaneous interpretation available in Spanish. Registration is required for in-person and Zoom participation. Dean Vincent Guilamo-Ramos will deliver opening remarks.

“I am honored to be a part of the Duke University School of Nursing’s 59th annual Harriet Cook Carter Lecture; it is important to recognize the history of our profession while looking forward to what can be done to improve nursing education and research and to generate new solutions for health and health care challenges,” said Trent-Adams. 

The lecture will focus on the role of nursing in public health disaster preparedness, with recognition of the way the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed nursing as a profession. Viral contagions are only one of the many health care risks we face globally. The lecture will focus on contagious and noncontagious diseases and the public health threats that can destabilize global health.  

Trent-Adams will address the role of nursing in improving public health and decreasing disparities in all aspects of health, challenging participants to consider what we can do as a profession to provide the leadership to ensure better solutions, innovation, and more inclusive and dynamic models.  

"Dr. Trent-Adams's presentation comes at a pivotal time for Duke School of Nursing, as we envision our role in the future of nursing through paths including health leadership and policy,” said Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, RN, ANP-BC, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, dean, Duke School of Nursing, and vice-chancellor, nursing affairs, Duke University. “She exemplifies the influence that nurses have on a strategic level and the ways nurses are shaping the future of health care. It’s an honor to host Dr. Trent-Adams.”  

The Harriet Cook Carter Lecture is named in honor of Harriet Cook Carter, a nurse and an honorary member of the Alumni Association of the Duke University School of Nursing. The lecture series was designed to give recognition to nursing as an academic discipline within the university and as a profession within society; to stimulate ideas for improving nursing education, nursing service, and nursing research; and to stimulate interest, support, and ideas for improving health care and health education in society. 

About the Speaker 

A lifetime public servant, Trent-Adams began her extensive public health career in 1992 by joining the Commissioned Corps. When she retired in 2020 from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, she had achieved the distinguished rank of rear admiral upper half. 

Trent-Adams is the executive vice president and chief strategy officer at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. In this role, she assists the president in developing, communicating, executing, and sustaining strategic initiatives Trent-Adams leads strategic planning, focusing on accelerating organization performance through cohesive strategy planning and execution, knowledge management, and organizational accountability.  

Before joining the Health Science Center, Trent-Adams served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from January 2019 through August 2020. Through this position, she and the assistant secretary for health shared responsibility for planning, coordinating, and directing substantive program matters; policy and program development; and determining and setting legislative and program priorities, covering the full range of public health activities within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. 

Throughout her career, Trent-Adams has focused on improving access to care for poor and underserved communities. As a clinician and administrator, she has impacted building systems of care to improve public health for marginalized populations domestically and internationally. Trent-Adams continued this work as the deputy surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps from 2015 to 2018.  

As deputy surgeon general, Trent-Adams was a trusted advisor to the surgeon general, providing support on various critical issues, including efforts to combat the opioid crisis and the operations of the Commissioned Corps.  

Prior, Trent-Adams was deputy associate administrator for the HIV/AIDS Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, where she helped manage the $2.3 billion Ryan White program. 

She has earned numerous accolades and awards. In 2017, Trent-Adams was awarded the International Red Cross Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international honor bestowed upon a nurse. She is the recipient of the American Nursing Credentialing Center’s HRH Princess Muna Al Hussein Award, the American Academy of Nursing’s Civitas Award, and the American Association of the Colleges of Nursing’s Lois Capps Luminary Policy Award.  

These many accomplishments speak to her dedicated services, such as receiving a Distinguished Service Medal for her sustained leadership, dedication, and service at the highest levels while serving as principal deputy assistant secretary for health and deputy surgeon general. She was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for her leadership during the Commissioned Corps response to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa and the Surgeon General’s Medallion for service acting Surgeon General from April 2017 to September 2017.  

Trent-Adams has been elected as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (2014), National Academy of Medicine (2018), and the National Academies of Practice (2018).  

She received her BSN from Hampton University, MSN in health policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  She was a nurse officer in the U.S. Army and a research nurse at the University of Maryland. Her clinical practice was in trauma, oncology, community health, and infectious disease.  

Registration Information 

The event will be held as a hybrid program. The in-person lecture will be held in the Christine Siegler Pearson Building and open to Duke students, faculty, and staff; the program will also be livestreamed via Zoom, with simultaneous interpretation available in Spanish. Registration is required for in-person and Zoom participation.