Two weeks after the announcement that Sylvia Trent-Adams would step down as president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, public documents obtained by the Report reveal the university system agreed to pay $560,000 for her voluntary resignation.
The University of North Texas System and Trent-Adams signed a “Mutual Termination and Release Agreement,” executed on Jan. 31, her last day at the Fort Worth institution. The agreement was first reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Trent-Adams will be paid within 30 days following her termination date, according to the agreement. She earned $700,000 in fiscal year 2024, according to a Texas Legislative Budget Board document.
The $560,000 will be treated as taxable compensation but does not earn Trent-Adams eligibility for any benefits or retirement plan. The UNT System also agrees not to challenge any application by Trent-Adams for unemployment benefits.
Trent-Adams also agrees to release the UNT System and any of its affiliates of any and all claims and potential legal claims. In exchange, the UNT System releases Trent-Adams from any and all claims and potential legal claims.
There is no mention of a nondisclosure agreement for either party or the UNT System assuming any legal representation that may arise against Trent-Adams.
A UNT Health Science Center spokesperson declined to comment on the mutual agreement.
Her Jan. 20 resignation came more than four months after a national NBC News investigation found UNT Health Science Center’s Willed Body Program repeatedly failed to contact reachable family members before declaring a body unclaimed and using it for medical research. A November news investigation also reported that the university was violating Texas law by liquefying the remains of human bodies in its training program.
After NBC published its findings, Health Science Center program leaders were terminated and the program suspended operations. Tarrant County also cut its ties to the program after donating its unclaimed bodies to the university since 2018 in order to save money on burials and cremation.
In a Jan. 20 email obtained by the Report, Trent-Adams wrote to faculty, staff and students that her reasons for leaving were personal, but that she arrived at the decision after a “great deal of thought and consideration.”
UNT Health Science Center is an academic health science center focused on education, research and patient care.
Trent-Adams, who was a nurse officer in the U.S. Army, began her career with UNT Health Science Center in 2020 as its chief strategy officer before her promotion to president in September 2022. She became the seventh president of the Health Science Center, succeeding Dr. Michael Williams, and the first Black woman to lead the institution.
The Willed Body Program, and its partnership with Tarrant County, was established years before Trent-Adams joined the institution as its president. Williams, the current chancellor of the UNT System, was president of the Health Science Center from 2012 until transitioning to his current role in late 2022.
The Fort Worth institution’s three-paragraph Jan. 20 statement on Trent-Adams’ resignation did not mention the controversy.
The UNT System appointed Dr. Kirk A. Calhoun to serve as interim president of HSC, effective Feb. 1. Calhoun most recently served as president of the University of Texas at Tyler until his retirement in 2024. Calhoun’s salary in fiscal year 2023 was $930,729, according to a Texas Legislative Budget Board document.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5 p.m. Feb. 4 to include that UNT HSC declined to comment on the mutual agreement.
Government accountability reporter Emily Wolf contributed reporting.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
