Through Mitti Hicks
September 12, 2025
Dr. Chris Pernell was the most important integration and health assessment officer at the University Hospital in Newark, the only public acute care facility of the state.
The first diversity officer in a hospital in New Jersey sues her former employer for accusations of discrimination.
Dr. Chris Pernell, the former main integration and health manager of the University Hospital in Newark, the only public facility of the state, claims that she was forced to leave illegally in 2022.
According to NJ.com, Pernell said in the court case that she was Subject to sexist and racial discrimination And intimidation. She claims that she worked in a hostile environment and was the target of a “frivolous scam investigation” after fighting for the stopping place in the hospital when it became open.
She also mentions the State Ethics Commission as a suspect.
Pernell says she was criticized for diversity efforts
Pernell served as a chief diversity officer in one of the largest care providers in the state for uninsured patients. Nj.com said the hospital is a facility of 519 beds.
Pernell said she was criticized because of her diversity efforts and noticed that she was being investigated more than other senior staff. In an interview shortly after her departure, she said hostility to her started shortly after her arrival While she worked on implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives.
“I felt that I had to validate the role in which I played,” she said.
In the court case, Pernell said that she was often asked to “suppress the worries of the black workers.” In one incident, she stated that she was asked to participate in the reaction of the hospital after someone in a common working area had written “WLM” (White Lives Matter).
Instead of firing that employee, Pernell said that the hospital has again granted him about her objections.
She said that things took a turn after she had shown interest in the CEO position that opened after the departure of Shereef Elnahal to work under the Biden administration.
Pernell claimed that even after more than 100 leaders had written an open letter to the Governor and the Board of Directors of the hospital in support of her as CEO, she was told that the Governor’s office would not support her candidacy and “would not be strongly armed” to offer her the position.
Pernell is currently director of the Center for Health Equity at the NAACP.
In her lawsuit, Pernell recovery, back -pay, benefits, compensatory damage and legal costs. She also wants the hospital to “take appropriate corrective measures to stop and prevent retribution at the workplace.”
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