Harvard Public Health

Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams has been caring for people since she was just a child. When Trent-Adams was just 12 she volunteered as a candy striper at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia. The Rear Admiral later served as a nurse in the U.S. Army before rising up the ranks of the U.S. Public Health Service to become Deputy Surgeon General. In 2017, she was named Acting Surgeon General for six months, becoming just the second nurse, and the first registered nurse to hold that position. Today, Trent-Adams is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health. Throughout her career, Trent-Adams has focused on improving access to care for under-served and marginalized groups. And during a visit to the Harvard Chan School, we took the opportunity to interview Trent-Adams about her career in public health. She spoke about the need to shift America’s health care system to a prevention model, strategies for addressing complex health challenges, and how being a nurse has shaped her career