PITTSBURGH - An interim director of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary's Doctor of Ministry blames her advocacy for better treatment of minorities and women for costing her the permanent position.
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS) is facing a lawsuit filed Feb. 15 by Denise E. Thorpe, Th.D., who alleges that the seminary has been involved in discriminatory practices.
Filed on Feb. 15 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the lawsuit claims that PTS had difficulty retaining African American faculty and that non-faculty women holding doctorate degrees were either terminated or left for lower-paying jobs.
Dr. Thorpe, an ordained Presbyterian minister and licensed attorney in Colorado, was hired by PTS in 2018 as interim director of the Doctor of Ministry program. She alleges that her African American colleague was severely overworked, undersupported, and subjected to racially discriminatory actions and bullying by other staff members at PTS.
The lawsuit further states that despite a significant portion of the student body being composed of Doctor of Ministry program students, the program was expected to function with limited support from student services, admissions and recruiting, and most other administrators.
When the time came to pick a permanent director for the program, Thorpe says she was passed over for voicing her discrimination concerns.
James Lieber of Lieber Hammer Huber & Paul represents Thorpe.