FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A leading doctor of dental surgery is accusing Nova Southeastern University and various College of Dental Medicine employees of discriminating against her because she is Turkish-American Muslim.
Plaintiff Sibel Antonson filed her lawsuit July 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division.
The named defendants include NSU, Dr. Steven Kaltman, Dr. Hal Lippman, Dr. Cristina Garcia-Godoy, and Dr. Richard Singer.
Kaltman, dean of the CDM, is white and Jewish. Lippman, executive associate dean of operations at the CDM, is white and Jewish. Garcia-Godoy also is white, and was Antonson’s replacement as interim assistant dean of research at the CDM. Singer, also white and Jewish, was the executive director of the Master of Science in Disaster and Emergency Management, or MSCDM, program.
According to Antonson’s filing, she was employed by NSU in the CDM beginning Aug. 12, 2016 until her termination on Aug. 9, 2024.
“Dr. Antonson also happens to be a 55-year-old Turkish Muslim-American Woman – immutable characteristics that are, unfortunately, incompatible with the prevailing workplace culture of NSU and the College of Dental Medicine, the ranks of which are dominated and controlled by white Jewish men,” she noted in the 29-page complaint.
Antonson describes herself as a “distinguished” doctor of dental surgery, author, and academic, being recognized nationally and internationally.
According to her filing, she previously served as the first American female president elected to the International Association of Dental Research Dental Materials Group – the oldest and largest international dental research organization.
She is also founder and president of the Minimally Invasive Dentistry Research Network of the International Association of Dental Research, and recipient of the Peyton/Skinner Award for Innovation for her invention, fabrication, and market introduction of the world’s first one-step finishing and polishing device, among other accolades.
Antonson has been a full professor, having held positions with the University of Florida, SUNY at Buffalo and, before being terminated, at NSU.
She noted that from the time she was hired through her last review in early 2023, she consistently received “outstanding reviews” by those who supervised her at NSU.
“Dr. Antonson experienced a toxic, hostile, and career-damaging work environment surreptitiously engineered by Defendants to make Dr. Antonson’s continued employment untenable through a series of cruel pretextual actions,” her complaint states. “To this end, Defendants achieved their goal – the removal of an otherwise eminently qualified Assistant Dean because of how she presents to the community as a fellow American.”
Antonson is suing the defendants for violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and various Florida civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Act is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Antonson said about July-September 2023 she began “experiencing efforts” by NSU and its employees, in particular Lippman, and “deliberate adverse action” against her.
She points out that at the same time, armed tensions between Israeli and Muslim communities within the Middle East began significant escalation.
These escalations in isolated armed conflicts ultimately culminated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack and subsequent Gaza war.
In July 2019, Antonson was appointed by NSU as the assistant dean for research and development, or ADR. As part of her appointment, she received a $10,000 increase in her salary as a stipend, she noted.
Lippman, Antonson alleges, “actively acted against” her based on her gender, nationality, and religion. She claims he resented that Antonson was appointed as the ADR for the CDM.
“Dr. Lippman deliberately influenced the other Individual Defendants, including Dr. Kaltman, to take adverse measures against Dr. Antonson and empowered support staff to take discriminatory action against Dr. Antonson,” the complaint states.
Antonson also was awarded the position of principal investigator for the Kerr Corporation clinical trial of dental Optibond Universal, used for indirect dental restorations.
But the Kerr grant turned her into a scapegoat, she claims.
“NSU’s failure to properly audit grant management provided the perfect pretextual basis for NSU and the Individual Defendants to launch a bogus ‘investigation,’ and blame Dr. Antonson for ‘grant mismanagement’ when, in reality, she has no involvement in same [sic] and was simply an otherwise well-qualified individual who happened to be a Turkish-Muslim woman,” the complaint states.
Antonson claims the alleged noncompliance with respect to the Kerr Grant triggered an Internal Review Board, or IRB, investigation that led to the issuance of a Corrective Action Plan, or CAP.
The CAP called for Antonson’s removal as principal investigator of another study funded by the Florida State Department of Health.
“This decision was a drastic remedy that was not supported by precedent and applicable IRB procedures,” Antonson claims.
“During the IRB investigation, false and defamatory statements were made regarding Dr. Antonson regarding her competency and she was framed as a non-compliant individual who needed to be monitored for clinical trials.”
The allegations served as a basis to remove Antonson as ADR and appoint Garcia-Godoy as her replacement, according to the filing.
After the IRB’s Jan. 18, 2024 decision, Antonson immediately filed an appeal on Feb. 14, 2024 and hired an attorney.
“In short, NSU and Individual Defendants attempted to concoct a pretextual action cloaked as ‘policy and procedure’ for a minor self-reported protocol deviation involving patient paperwork in order to strip Dr. Antonson as Principal Investigator for a prestigious FDOH Study,” the complaint states.
“The result of Dr. Antonson being removed as Principal Investigator on this prestigious study was supposed to serve as a ‘basis on paper’ to demote and, eventually, terminate Dr. Antonson from employment with NSU.”
However, following an IRB appeal and hearing, the decision to remove Antonson as principal investigator was reversed on March 21, 2024.
“This was because the IRB and NSU understood that it could not legally justify such disproportionate, pretextual actions against Dr. Antonson without appearing to facially discriminate against Dr. Antonson through a nakedly-partisan IRB board for being the wrong sex, ethnicity, and religion to hold rank within the white, male, Jewish-dominated CDM administration,” according to Antonson’s complaint.
According to the filing, NSU would go on to admit that the IRB later determined that Antonson did not conduct research activities outside of the IRB’s approval and that any “protocol deviations” were of no consequence.
“The actions taken by NSU and Individual Defendants with respect to both the Kerr Grant delay, the internal audit, and the IRB were all pretextual and were designed to manufacture grounds to demote and ultimately terminate Dr. Antonson and replace her with an ADR (Dr. Garcia-Godoy) who ‘better fit the mold’ – i.e. a non-Turkish-Muslim,” the complaint states.
Antonson believes the IRB reversal should have ended the “pattern of pre-textual actions” against her, but it only served to “intensify” the efforts to oust her from the university entirely.
She claims in her filing she was demoted, returned to faculty status, moved to another department, and her research team was removed. She also was stripped of her existing office and forced to move to another office.
Antonson alleges she also was forced to sign her reassignment/demotion letter and threatened with termination if she didn’t sign on the same day. Her research grants were reduced to a single grant, she claims.
She noted the CDM also consistently paid her less than her male counterparts throughout the course of her employment.
Antonson filed charges of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, and received a Notice of Right to Sue letter from the commission April 9.
She also filed charges with the Florida Commission of Human Relations; she received a Notice of Determination in November 2024.
She seeks compensatory damages for lost wages, income, benefits, and “reputational injury.” She also seeks punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
Holiday Hunt Russell PLLC of Fort Lauderdale is representing Antonson in the action.
