Mount Sinai accused by top academic leader of unlawful retaliation

An academic leader at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai claims that it slashed her salary by six figures after she expressed concerns about discrimination within the Arnhold Institute for Global Health, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan federal court.

Dr. Ann Marie Beddoe, director of the medical school's Division of Global Women's Health and an associate professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science, is accusing Mount Sinai and the Icahn School of unlawful retaliation after she opposed the hiring of Dr. Prabhjot Singh as director of the Arnhold Institute and flagged concerns about his treatment of women.

Allegations that Singh discriminated against women and created a hostile work environment are the subject of ongoing litigation by a group of current and former Mount Sinai employees. Singh stepped down from his leadership role in July 2019, several months after the suit was filed, but remains on the Mount Sinai faculty.

In her complaint, Beddoe accuses medical school dean Dr. Dennis Charney of retaliating against her after she voiced concerns about Singh during the selection process and after his appointment.

"There is no merit to these allegations," a public-relations representative who represents the health system and Charney said in a statement to Crain's. "Mount Sinai and Dr. Charney will vigorously defend against these baseless claims."

Charney is also named in the 2019 suit, which was partially dismissed.

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Beddoe, who joined Mount Sinai full-time in 2013 after 25 years working off and on for the system, was appointed in 2014 to the search committee to pick the inaugural director of the Arnhold Institute, she said in her complaint.

Beddoe claims that Charney rejected the frontrunner candidate, a woman who was leading a global health program at a major university, and instead pitched Singh, then a 32-year-old medical resident. Beddoe said she gave Singh zeroes on almost every one of the search committee's metrics, but in 2015 Charney selected Singh for the role.

Beddoe said in her complaint that she later expressed concerns to Charney about Singh's leadership, namely that he "oversold himself and exaggerated his accomplishments," and about his alleged discrimination against women working at the institute.

After Singh stepped down, Beddoe said she was approached about applying for his role but never heard back about her application.

In February 2020 the system moved to renew her contract, but Charney and department chair Michael Brodman proposed cutting her salary by a total of $300,000 over the course of three years.

She eventually agreed to a $50,000 reduction on a one-year contract. In May 2021, she signed a new contract with an overall salary reduction of $100,000. Her title as director of chemotherapy was also removed, a role for which Beddoe said she had never been compensated.

Beddoe claimed that Brodman told her that "her salary was being cut because she had not brought in sufficient revenue" but that he also acknowledged that Charney controlled her salary, the complaint says.

Beddoe said she reluctantly agreed to the terms.

This story first appeared in our sister publication, Crain's New York Business.