On June 21, leaders at the Oregon Health Authority called an emergency virtual meeting to tell employees in the agency’s Equity and Inclusion Division that Leann Johnson, the division’s longtime director, had been fired that morning.

Johnson’s ouster took employees by surprise. In her nearly 10 years in charge, she had gained a reputation for caring deeply about her work, sticking up for her employees and courageously raising concerns to agency leaders, several employees in the division said. A month before she was fired, Johnson received a national award for advancing health equity initiatives at the agency.

“Leann had given so much of her time and her life to this position and to be treated like that, just to be cut off within two hours and blindsided, really wasn’t fair or right or humane,” said one longtime Oregon Health Authority employee in the division. That person and five other current employees who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak for the agency and feared retaliation from its leaders.

Oregon Health Authority Director Sejal Hathi cited significant delays by the equity division in investigating internal agency civil rights complaints and Johnson’s “inability or unwillingness” to accept feedback as the primary reasons for her firing, according to a memo she wrote to the agency’s human resources director that the agency provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive Wednesday. The memo was first published by The Lund Report.

In a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive Wednesday, Johnson said the memo “contains vague and elusive allegations that lack sufficient substance. I am unaware of any opportunity that I was given prior to my termination to understand or respond to these allegations.”

The sudden firing of the passionate and well-liked director has left numerous employees of the equity division shocked, angry and fearful that Oregon Health Authority leaders will make further changes to silence outspoken employees or consider reducing the division, according to interviews with the six agency employees and screenshots of employees’ typed comments during a virtual meeting in which Hathi spoke about the firing.

Hathi has since sent three emails to all 86 Equity and Inclusion Division employees or to every employee of the entire agency trying to assuage concerns. Hathi has no plans to make “structural changes” to the division, wrote Larry Bingham, an agency spokesperson, in an email Wednesday.

When The Oregonian/OregonLive asked the agency for an example of when Johnson failed to constructively respond to feedback, Bingham responded that, “Because of the potential for litigation, (the Health Authority) has been advised by the Oregon Department of Justice not to comment further.”

In the months before she was fired, Johnson filed multiple formal complaints against the agency alleging discrimination and retaliation, according to records and interviews. It’s unclear whether she filed the complaints solely on her behalf or also for others.

“A lot of us are reflecting right now on whether this is a place at (Oregon Health Authority), under this leadership, where we can do our work with integrity and in alignment with our values,” another employee in the division said in an interview.

The six Oregon Health Authority employees who work in or closely with the equity division told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the agency’s leaders, including Hathi, who took over as director in January, have maintained a workplace that discourages employees from speaking up about equity concerns, including racial discrimination and retaliation. Bingham said Hathi is committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming culture within the agency.

Those employees said they believe Hathi fired Johnson because she consistently spoke up on behalf of her employees and challenged leaders when she saw actions or behaviors that fostered an inequitable workplace.

“She pushed the envelope too much,” one employee said.

Multiple employees pointed to a controversial press release the agency sent May 23 encouraging members of Oregon’s LGBTQ+ community to get an mpox virus vaccination as a way to mark Pride month. It was the second year in a row that the agency sent a similar press release.

“Pride is a great time for people in the LGBTQIA2S+ community to show support for themselves, their partners and their community by getting both doses of the mpox vaccine,” Health Authority epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger was quoted as saying.

That day, Johnson emailed seven senior Oregon Health Authority employees, including Hathi, stating that the press release was offensive to the LGBTQ+ community and employees and asking the agency to issue a public apology, according to emails obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Hathi’s chief of staff, Ashley Thirstrup, agreed to change the subject line on the archived version of the press release but not to send out a corrected version of the widely distributed email. She acknowledged that, “Although our intent was to share prevention messaging, the stigma and harm to some (Oregon Health Authority) staff who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, two spirit resulting from the HIV/AIDS pandemic is very real.”

Johnson and Health Authority Resilience and Healing Policy Advisor Nina Perard pushed back against Thirstrup, stating that the content in the press release, not just the subject line and headline, was harmful. “I may be one individual out on a branch with a microphone but oh my gosh … I don’t have words for how stigmatized I feel right now,” Perard wrote.

Johnson took her response further. “For some this is a problem that could very likely elevate to a formal complaint,” her response to Thirstrup said. “I know there is concern that in this agency we resort to complaints, and I submit that is because we do not heed advice and coaching at the level where these matters should be resolved.”

Last November, before Hathi arrived in Oregon, Johnson filed a formal complaint against Oregon Health Authority leaders with the Oregon Labor Bureau. In the complaint, provided by the Labor Bureau to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Johnson alleged that she was intentionally left out of disciplinary meetings regarding more than one of her subordinates who had reported experiencing discrimination.

She also alleged in the complaint that she had “experienced gaslighting, scapegoating and questioning of my competence, character and honesty. I have also observed undermining of my management decisions and a lack of communication with me and my division.”

The Labor Bureau’s investigation into her complaint remains open.

Lack of transparency

Employees in the equity division say agency leaders have not been transparent about the reason behind Johnson’s firing.

On June 21, Johnson’s last day, Hathi sent an agency-wide email at noon announcing Johnson’s departure. The email did not give a reason for her departure.

“Leann has led the Equity and Inclusion Division for more than eight years, overseeing a major expansion in (the division’s) staffing and the division’s role in OHA,” Hathi said in the email provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive by the agency. “We wish Leann the best in all her future endeavors.”

Minutes after sending that email, Hathi and other agency leaders arranged the emergency meeting to explain to dozens of equity division employees why Johnson was being terminated so suddenly.

The meeting lasted 46 minutes, according to images of the meeting’s chat log provided by an employee to The Oregonian/OregonLive. In that time, Hathi repeatedly avoided answering direct questions about why Johnson was being let go, according to four employees who attended the meeting and numerous comments logged in the chat.

Hathi cited the privacy of personnel matters, a principle widely adhered to in both private and public sector human resources decisions.

“Multiple times, we asked them to provide information of what led to that decision, and we were told that it was confidential, that they couldn’t share anything with us,” one employee said.

That did not satisfy riled up employees, the chat log shows. Hathi was the only one who spoke to explain the firing decision, interviews and the chat log indicate.

“We were all pretty much in shock and wanting answers, and so we joined that meeting to ask leadership to give us answers, which they didn’t,” another employee said. “It seemed like (Hathi) was reading off of a document and like somebody was in the room with her.”

In her memo to the agency’s human resources director explaining her decision to fire Johnson, Hathi acknowledged that some groups outside of the agency that worked with Johnson reported positive experiences but said Johnson’s conduct within the agency was a concern.

“To be clear, I am not making this decision rashly or because of one interaction with Ms. Johnson,” Hathi wrote. “My decision tracks my observations since beginning as OHA’s director as well as, more importantly, input, including requests for assistance, from leadership team members and staff who have courageously and of their own volition shared their observations with me about working with Leann.”

In her memo, Hathi acknowledged “Leann has brought forward several complaints of race discrimination or retaliation against various personnel in the agency.” She said it should be “a priority to promptly investigate these matters and take appropriate action to address any substantiated allegations.”

In her statement Wednesday, Johnson said Hathi’s memo “contains what I consider to be an odd reference to my protected whistleblower complaints, which is even more suspicious given that I had recently filed a protected retaliation complaint against Director Hathi herself.”

Bingham, the agency spokesperson, said Hathi was unaware when she wrote the memo that any of Johnson’s complaints were against Hathi.

In the memo, Hathi also wrote that Johnson’s approach to solving disputes with others “has impacted these individuals’ psychological safety, hindered effective collaboration, and undermined trust and morale on the agency leadership team.”

“I considered whether continued engagement with Ms. Johnson through feedback and coaching would address my concerns,” Hathi said in the memo. “I determined this approach will not be effective.”

It’s unclear how much of the blame for the backlog of civil rights investigations falls to Johnson. The Lund Report reported that two leaders in the equity division, including Johnson, had previously raised concerns to agency leadership about insufficient staffing and high case load volumes.

Since 2020, the Oregon Health Authority has initiated 449 investigations into employees’ complaints of a toxic workplace, sexual harassment or discrimination based on sex, race or national origin, according to data the agency provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive. The agency did not specify how many of those complaints were conducted by the equity division versus other divisions, such as human resources.

The agency has so far only provided detailed information on one investigation conducted by the equity division, which took 30 months to complete.

“The length of time it takes for any investigation to be completed (as in this case) depends on the scope and complexity of the issues, witness availability and the availability and capacity of the Equity and Inclusion Division’s investigative staff,” Thirstrup, Hathi’s chief of staff, said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive weeks ago.

A culture of uncertainty

Hathi’s reported reasons for firing Johnson do not align with the perspective of several employees who worked regularly with Johnson.

All six Oregon Health Authority employees who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive said agency leaders have downplayed the importance of equity and inclusion since former director Patrick Allen left in January 2023. During Allen’s tenure, one employee said, “there was a sense that our leadership was really committed” to equity and inclusion that diminished after his departure.

In 2023, the agency investigated 139 workplace complaints, up from 83 in 2022 and 91 in 2021, according to Oregon Health Authority data.

The equity and inclusion division employees said they were hopeful when Hathi, a woman of color, joined the agency as director in January. The physician brought an impressive resume. She earned her M.B.A and M.D. at Stanford University and worked as a senior health policy adviser at the White House before taking her most recent job as deputy commissioner for public health at the New Jersey Department of Health.

Multiple employees described Hathi as standoffish and distant. Two employees described several instances of Hathi arriving late to meetings and not turning her camera on during virtual meetings.

“When they brought in (Hathi), I think a lot of us were hopeful, because, yes, she is a woman of color, and yeah, she has an excellent resume,” one employee said.

Since Johnson’s departure, employees in the Health Authority’s equity division say they have been fearful and uncertain about the future of the division, and say they have received little support from leadership.

“Does this leadership have a different vision for the work?” one employee said. “Should we be moving forward with what we’re doing? If they say that they fired Leann because they want the work to be better, does this mean that they do not agree with the work that we’re currently doing?”

Bingham, the agency spokesperson, wrote that “Hathi has spoken repeatedly about her desire to create a culture at OHA where employees can learn, grow and work together through collaboration and problem solving to build a welcoming and inclusive environment for all that well equips OHA to be an anti-racist organization.”

In the email sent on Johnson’s last day to the equity division, Hathi said the work of the equity and inclusion team remains vital to the agency. She said the agency will launch a national search for Johnson’s replacement this summer.

“The staff in (equity and inclusion) have been, and will continue to be, catalysts for our work to eliminate health inequities, build deeper and more authentic relationships with the communities we serve, and create a workplace where everyone is welcomed and feels like they belong,” she wrote.

Five days later, Hathi sent an agency-wide email and an email specifically to equity and inclusion division staff reiterating her support of equity and inclusion and offering office hours for employees to ask questions and give feedback.

“I can’t promise I will be able to answer all of your questions – I am limited in what I am able to say – but I can listen and will offer what I can and be open to any and all of your reflections, your questions, and your feedback,” Hathi said in the email, which the Oregon Health Authority provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Her employees in the equity division, however, aren’t convinced.

Finding a suitable replacement for Johnson will be a difficult task, employees said. “She had our back 200%,” one employee said. “It really didn’t feel like an unsafe place to work. I think right now, it feels unsafe.”

— Carlos Fuentes covers state politics and government. Reach him at 503-221-5386 or cfuentes@oregonian.com.

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