NEW ORLEANS – A former employee of New Orleans nonprofit ArcGNO claims she was discriminated against, demoted and ultimately terminated because of her race.
Plaintiff Courtney Zeller, who is White, filed her lawsuit June 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Zeller began her employment with ArcGNO as a program coordinator in February 2018. In June 2021, she was promoted to Director of Community Integration and Workforce Development. In the fall of 2022, she was demoted and later terminated in September 2023.
“The ongoing pattern of disparate treatment, exclusion, unresponsiveness, and ultimately, termination, created a work environment permeated with racial hostility and bias,” her 32-page complaint states.
“Plaintiff’s complaints were consistently ignored, and adverse actions against her escalated after she engaged in protected activity. Defendant’s conduct created a hostile work environment that was severe, pervasive, and motivated by racial animus in violation of Title VII.”
Defendant ArcGNO is a non-profit company engaged in providing services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
According to its website, it currently serves more than 500 children and adults in Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and St. Tammany parishes.
It assists parents of infants in finding therapies and treatments, helps high school students in exploring job options after graduation, and provides job coaching and placement.
Zeller, a Metairie, La., resident, claims then-ArcGNO Executive Director Mary Ann Ross restructured Zeller’s department in 2022, resulting in a salary reduction for Zeller.
However, Zeller claims her Black colleagues retained their full salaries, despite the changes.
Zeller also claims she was removed from her responsibilities over Workforce Development and continued solely in the role of Director of Community Integration.
Soon after, in October 2022, Zeller said she was assigned a new direct supervisor, Brianna Rock. According to the court filing, Rock identifies as biracial.
“At the outset, Director Rock encouraged Plaintiff to delay seeking external job opportunities, representing that Plaintiff would play a significant role in the future of the organization and that a raise was forthcoming,” the complaint states.
“However, these assurances quickly gave way to a pattern of unequal and discriminatory treatment based on race.”
Zeller alleges that despite her qualifications and work ethic, she was subjected to “materially different treatment” than her Black colleagues.
“Director Rock repeatedly failed to return Plaintiff’s calls, canceled scheduled meetings, and assigned duplicative or unnecessary tasks, including work that had already been completed,” the complaint states. “By contrast, African American directors and assistant directors consistently received timely, responsive, and supportive communication from Director Rock, reinforcing a disparate and exclusionary environment for Plaintiff.”
In her filing, Zeller said she was placed on a Performance Improvement Plan, or PIP, in November 2022 by Rock. Rock pointed to deficiencies in communication, time management, professionalism and leadership.
“Plaintiff took the PIP seriously and made significant efforts to meet all its requirements,” the complaint states. “Despite her compliance, Director Rock continued to marginalize Plaintiff and assign her tasks outside her current role, including assisting with the failing Workforce Development Department, despite having been removed from leadership over that department.
“These requests further blurred role boundaries and underscored the inconsistent and retaliatory expectations placed on Plaintiff.”
Zeller alleges that during her employment, she often brought concerns about her disparate treatment to the attention of ArcGNO’s Human Resources department, but was “met with silence or disregard.”
In July 2023, she met with HR and ArcGNO’s current executive director, Heather Matthews, expressing her fears of retaliation.
Zeller continued to raise concerns about race-based hostility and unequal treatment, pointing to some discrepancies in the block report program. She had uncovered that a Black employee in the Workforce Development Department was deliberately deleting block conflicts.
She claims she reported the misconduct to Rock and provided documentation, but no disciplinary action was taken.
In September 2023, Zeller alleges she was terminated “abruptly” without a stated cause.
“Although vague references were made to issues with blocked reports, Plaintiff had not received any coaching, write-ups, or warnings regarding this issue,” the complaint states. “In fact, Plaintiff’s department had no blocked reports missing end times, while the Workforce Development Department, under the direction of an African American colleague had over twenty missing entries and remained untouched.”
Zeller claims she was never considered for reassignment, and was terminated even though other directors – who were less qualified and had documented issues – were retained.
According to her filing, her efforts to seek redress for the alleged discrimination were “consistently disregarded,” HR failed to respond to her repeated reports, and she was subjected to discrimination in pay.
“As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’s unlawful conduct, Plaintiff suffered emotional distress, humiliation, mental anguish, reputational harm, and economic damages including loss of income and employment benefits,” the complaint states.
Zeller seeks back pay, front pay, liquidated damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and special damages for lost compensation and job benefits, in addition to pre-judgment interest, an award for her share of state unemployment insurance and other required employment taxes, costs of the action, and attorneys’ fees.
The Minias Law Firm of New Orleans is representing the plaintiff.
