The president of the UNT Health Science Center Fort Worth campus is resigning after two-plus years.
FORT WORTH, Texas — The University of North Texas System announced the president of the UNT Health Science Center Fort Worth campus is resigning.
The University of North Texas System Board of Regents this week accepted University of North Texas Health Science Center President Sylvia Trent-Adams’ resignation “by mutual agreement.” Her resignation will be effective Jan. 31. She’d served as UNT HSC’s president since 2022.
“Both as President and previously as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Dr. Trent-Adams served HSC and its students with dedication, integrity, and respect,” the board of regents’ statement reads.
Kirk Calhoun will be appointed UNT Health Science Center’s interim president, effective Feb. 1, 2025, according to the statement. Calhoun had served as president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler until his retirement in May of 2024.
The specific reasoning behind Trent-Adams’ resignation is unclear, but it comes after an investigation by NBC News last year found UNT Health Science Center’s willed body program used bodies for research or training without consent from families.
The investigation detailed how UNTHSC used more than 2,000 unclaimed bodies given to it since 2019 under agreements with Tarrant and Dallas Counties.
Of those, the center allegedly selected more than 830 bodies for dissection and study, according to NBC. The investigation found others were sold, sometimes limb by limb, to medical companies and the U.S. Army.
In response to the investigation, UNT HSC suspended the willed body program.
“The program has fallen short of the standards of respect, care and professionalism that we demand. The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth extends its deepest apologies to the families who have been impacted,” UNTHSC said in a statement on its website about the suspension of the program.
Trent-Adams began her public health career in 1992 by joining the Commissioned Corps before ultimately retiring in 2020 from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps with the rank of Rear Admiral Upper Half.
