Former Philly health department employee who raised concerns about racial equity in the COVID-19 response sues the city
Dianna Coleman accuses the health department of racial discrimination, retaliation, and creating a hostile work environment.
A former employee of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health sued the city, alleging that she was targeted after reporting concerns of racial inequity in the department’s COVID-19 response, hiring, and leadership
Dianna Coleman, who was recently named Block Captain of the Year by the Philadelphia Citizen news website alongside Citizen of the Year and Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts, filed the federal complaint in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Tuesday. She accuses the health department of racial discrimination, retaliation, and creating a hostile work environment, and asks for damages in excess of $150,000.
The lawsuit dusts up racial equity criticism of the city’s early COVID-19 testing and vaccination response, which led to the rise of Ala Stanford’s Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium as a way to fill the gap in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Public uproar reached a fever pitch with the Philly Fighting COVID scandal — in which the city handed a large chunk of its early vaccine distribution program to self-described “college kids” with minimal health care qualifications who failed to disclose a for-profit arm.
Coleman worked at the department of health in various capacities related to COVID-19 mitigation starting in June 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was terminated in March 2022 after multiple instances in which she expressed to leadership her dissatisfaction with lack of improvement in closing racial disparities for COVID-19 services, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that Coleman was terminated because of her race.
“Due to the exclusion and silencing of Black and Brown leaders by the Department of Public Health, we as employees were treated inequitably, faced microaggressions, and the distribution of testing and vaccinations in our communities suffered,” Coleman said in a statement through her attorney. “Despite my ongoing advocacy and request for leadership to meet with us, we were ignored, and those who insisted that inequities and disparities be addressed were targeted.”
The city declined to comment.
Coleman, who has a master’s degree in public health, was hired through the PMHCC Inc., a human services company,to work at a unit formed to mitigate the spread of coronavirus in Philadelphia through measures such as testing and contact tracing, the complaint says.
Shortly after joining the department, Coleman reported concerns about racial disparities in the distribution of services like COVID-19 testing, according to the complaint. In response, she was “verbally admonished” in a meeting, the complaint says.
Throughout her employment, Coleman raised concerns about the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 services and resources, the complaint said. For example, in March 2021 she emailed then-Health Commissioner Thomas Farley saying that concerns of Black and brown staffers, and their suggestion to improve equity, “fall on deaf ears.”
“I am frustrated and increasingly discouraged by the lack of planning and execution and displaced leadership to address inequities that continue to persist,” she wrote in the email to Farley, according to the complaint.
Coleman also reported concerns to health department leadership about lack of diversity in hiring, improper storage of vaccines, staff distributing vaccines to family and friends, and experiencing microaggressions from white managers and staff.
And while her concerns and suggestions for improvement were ignored, according to the complaint, she formed plans for COVID-19 prevention in educational facilities such as day cares and schools, and was promoted to a supervisory role, in which she hired a diverse team.
After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed teens to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Coleman cofounded a teen vaccination outreach program called Philly Teen Vaxx Ambassadors, which gained praise in local and national press.
But the department didn’t allow Coleman to speak with the media, the complaint said.
The city did not want Coleman “to be public facing for her responsibility for creating ‘Philly Teen Vaxx Ambassadors’ because she is a Black nonconforming woman, who had voiced several concerns about the inequities experienced by Black and Brown employees and The City of Philadelphia,” the complaint said.
Following the success, the department attempted to marginalize Coleman from the teen outreach program, according to the complaint. When she refused to give up her leadership role, the health department stopped supporting Philly Teen Vaxx Ambassadors, the lawsuit says. (The program continued with support from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia School District, according to the complaint.)
Coleman was fired in March 2022, following contentious conversations with PMHCC Inc. and a series of emails between her and the health department regarding lack of reimbursements for her team’s travel in the city.
“Ms. Coleman was targeted because she advocated for herself, her colleagues, and her community,” Coleman’s attorney, Lucas Nascimento, said in a statement.