The former head of the Connecticut Department of Public Health has accused Governor Ned Lamont of firing her in May for discriminatory reasons.
Renée Coleman-Mitchell is Black. Her lawyer, Eric Brown, said she wants to “set the record straight” about why she was let go “without a plausible reason”.
“Essentially [she] was replaced by Josh Geballe, the governor’s Chief Operating Officer, who took over the day-to-day handling and operations of the state’s COVID response. She was shoved to the side," Brown said. "The reason why we think that’s discriminatory is because Josh Geballe is a young white man with no public health experience. He’s a politician.”
In a statement, Coleman-Mitchell was appalled Lamont replaced her 30 years of public health expertise with Josh Geballe, a former IBM executive.
Her statement comes ahead of a commissioned report to review the state’s pandemic response expected later this month. Coleman-Mitchell says she was never interviewed.
Lamont and his health department declined to comment.
