McAllister Olivarius Files Lawsuit Against Mount Sinai Claiming Workplace Discrimination and Retaliation

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- McAllister Olivarius has filed a lawsuit on behalf of four pioneers of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital (AIGH) in New York State Court alleging workplace discrimination and retaliation. The plaintiffs are four former employees of AIGH who helped build the Institute's nationally recognized program in global health education. They include Dr. Natasha Anushri Anandaraja; Dr. Holly Atkinson; Mary Caliendo; and Humale Khan. According to the lawsuit, after the school received a $12.5 million commitment from the Arnhold family to expand the team's work in 2014, Dr. Dennis S. Charney, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine, hired Dr. Prabhjot Singh, an inexperienced 32-year-old still completing his residency, as Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health. Singh's appointment came against the advice of a search committee that had previously recommended a highly qualified female candidate.

The individuals subsequently hired for leadership positions under Dr. Charney and Singh were overwhelmingly young men who were given more prestigious titles and were paid substantially more than their female counterparts. Dr. Singh, the filing claims, continuously "gaslit" existing female staff so that they would "voluntarily" leave. By 2018, 13 women had left AIGH.

The filing goes on to state that Defendant Bruno Silva, an employee of Mount Sinai, regularly used crude and derogatory language to women, including fellow employees and donors, and made vulgar statements and remarks about their appearance. Silva also repeatedly slurred a staff member of Pakistani origin, using derogatory language to describe his office. Despite these and other allegations repeatedly being brought to Mount Sinai's leadership, the lawsuit contends the school took a "see no evil" approach. Oversight Committee was created to help address the issue but met infrequently and did not noticeably change things during Dr. Singh's directorship.

"The lack of oversight by Mount Sinai on Dr. Singh and Dean Charney has not only created a hostile and inhumane work environment for our clients that has had a damaging impact on their professional careers, but has also severely damaged an institute that was previously internationally recognized as a leader in global health education," said Jef McAllister, Co-Founding Partner at McAllister Olivarius, a transatlantic law firm that is representing the plaintiffs in this matter.

"Our hope is that this legal process will result in a more equitable work environment for all at Mount Sinai and in academic medicine nationally, especially for gender minorities and BIPOC," said Dr. Natasha Anushri Anandaraja, one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit. "We will continue in our efforts to address the pervasive racism and sexism that exists in our healthcare systems."

SOURCE McAllister Olivarius