Justice for Carol
Donation protected
Justice for Carol
After 30 years as a leader in the Denver Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) community, Carol Nichols herself suffered overt workplace discrimination because of her RACE (African American), DISABILITY (leukemia, lymphoma), and WHISTLE-BLOWING about Denver Health and Hospital Authority's mistreatment of African American women. In September 2020, Carol expanded her federal court complaint to allege that Denver Health and Hospital Authority (DHHA) maintains a pattern and practice of systemic racism against African American employees in its disciplinary and termination decisions.
As Denver Health's EEO Investigator, Carol saw consistent patterns of disparate treatment and received complaints that she could not ignore, despite Denver Health's best efforts to silence her. On June 21, 2019, immediately after Carol and her physicians requested the reasonable accommodation to work from home temporarily while undergoing chemotherapy--i.e. to avoid life-threatening viruses and infections--Denver Health summarily terminated her. "Overall Job Performance" stated the Termination Notice that her supervisor prepared one week AFTER abruptly firing Carol. Yet, this same supervisor rated Carol's job performance just three months earlier as "Successful." And worse, Denver Health sidestepped ALL of its disciplinary and performance rehabilitation policies/practices (i.e. policies that Carol trained other Denver Health managers to follow) by firing her without prior notice. Besides, as Carol observed, most of her white non-disabled coworkers in the HR department worked from home regularly.
This stinks to high heaven. Denver Health unfairly and likely illegally stripped Carol of her livelihood, HEALTH INSURANCE, and ability to care for her grandchildren when she needed these resources the most.
Work is the glue that holds most people's lives together. The degradation of discrimination and stress of losing her income and insurance have compromised Carol's leukemia treatment. Since her leukemia treatment failed in July 2019, Carol is currently undergoing experimental procedures to extend her life and like a trooper, she is still trying to work as an EEO Investigator on a contract basis to stay afloat financially. But she does not know how long she has left.
Carol has courageously chosen to spend what could be the last months of her life fighting to vindicate herself and other African American women at Denver Health whom, she reasonably believes, have endured disparate treatment on a systemic basis. To that end, we filed a Complaint and Jury Demand on October 2, 2019 in U.S. District Court-Colorado on behalf of Carol and other similarly situated African-American women, alleging multiple violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
But litigation is expensive--e.g. filing fees, depositions, court costs. We know from litigating Houchin v. Denver Health , an LGBT discrimination matter pending before the Colorado Supreme Court that affects every LGBT public servant in Colorado, that Denver Health takes very different positions in PUBLIC and in COURT. And so, we are also raising funds to engage our PR team from Focus PR/Marketing to make sure that information in the public court record actually reaches the public. Finally, and ideally, we would like to relieve Carol of the crippling financial stress that jeopardizes her cancer treatment. For that reason, we are hoping that this campaign exceeds our wildest dreams and enables us to give Carol the financial cushion she needs to focus on her health and family during this difficult time.
Work is the glue that holds most people's lives together. People unfairly fired from their jobs seldom have the resources to fight back. I'm hoping that Carol's example of fighting back with all the strength will inspire others to donate whatever they can afford to further her fight for Equal Employment Opportunity for all.
Merrily S. Archer, Esq., M.S.W. , EEO Legal Solutions LLC
Attorney for Carol Nichols
After 30 years as a leader in the Denver Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) community, Carol Nichols herself suffered overt workplace discrimination because of her RACE (African American), DISABILITY (leukemia, lymphoma), and WHISTLE-BLOWING about Denver Health and Hospital Authority's mistreatment of African American women. In September 2020, Carol expanded her federal court complaint to allege that Denver Health and Hospital Authority (DHHA) maintains a pattern and practice of systemic racism against African American employees in its disciplinary and termination decisions.
As Denver Health's EEO Investigator, Carol saw consistent patterns of disparate treatment and received complaints that she could not ignore, despite Denver Health's best efforts to silence her. On June 21, 2019, immediately after Carol and her physicians requested the reasonable accommodation to work from home temporarily while undergoing chemotherapy--i.e. to avoid life-threatening viruses and infections--Denver Health summarily terminated her. "Overall Job Performance" stated the Termination Notice that her supervisor prepared one week AFTER abruptly firing Carol. Yet, this same supervisor rated Carol's job performance just three months earlier as "Successful." And worse, Denver Health sidestepped ALL of its disciplinary and performance rehabilitation policies/practices (i.e. policies that Carol trained other Denver Health managers to follow) by firing her without prior notice. Besides, as Carol observed, most of her white non-disabled coworkers in the HR department worked from home regularly.
This stinks to high heaven. Denver Health unfairly and likely illegally stripped Carol of her livelihood, HEALTH INSURANCE, and ability to care for her grandchildren when she needed these resources the most.
Work is the glue that holds most people's lives together. The degradation of discrimination and stress of losing her income and insurance have compromised Carol's leukemia treatment. Since her leukemia treatment failed in July 2019, Carol is currently undergoing experimental procedures to extend her life and like a trooper, she is still trying to work as an EEO Investigator on a contract basis to stay afloat financially. But she does not know how long she has left.
Carol has courageously chosen to spend what could be the last months of her life fighting to vindicate herself and other African American women at Denver Health whom, she reasonably believes, have endured disparate treatment on a systemic basis. To that end, we filed a Complaint and Jury Demand on October 2, 2019 in U.S. District Court-Colorado on behalf of Carol and other similarly situated African-American women, alleging multiple violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
But litigation is expensive--e.g. filing fees, depositions, court costs. We know from litigating Houchin v. Denver Health , an LGBT discrimination matter pending before the Colorado Supreme Court that affects every LGBT public servant in Colorado, that Denver Health takes very different positions in PUBLIC and in COURT. And so, we are also raising funds to engage our PR team from Focus PR/Marketing to make sure that information in the public court record actually reaches the public. Finally, and ideally, we would like to relieve Carol of the crippling financial stress that jeopardizes her cancer treatment. For that reason, we are hoping that this campaign exceeds our wildest dreams and enables us to give Carol the financial cushion she needs to focus on her health and family during this difficult time.
Work is the glue that holds most people's lives together. People unfairly fired from their jobs seldom have the resources to fight back. I'm hoping that Carol's example of fighting back with all the strength will inspire others to donate whatever they can afford to further her fight for Equal Employment Opportunity for all.
Merrily S. Archer, Esq., M.S.W. , EEO Legal Solutions LLC
Attorney for Carol Nichols
Organizer and beneficiary
Merrily Archer
Organizer
Denver, CO
Carol Nichols
Beneficiary
