A former UI Health resident alleges bias complaints were followed by retaliation and lost career opportunities
A former UI Health psychiatry resident alleges discrimination and retaliation in a federal complaint filed in Illinois.
Dr. Sofia Sami filed the complaint on June 21, 2026, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The filing names UI Health and other defendants, and alleges discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sex, and association with Palestinians, as well as retaliation and violations of the Illinois Whistleblower Act.
Sami is described in the complaint as a Pakistani Muslim woman who is South Asian and wore hijab during the relevant period. The complaint states that UI Health employed her as a medical resident in its psychiatry residency program from June 2020 to July 2024.
According to the complaint, Sami received strong evaluations during her first three years in the program and was accepted into several fellowships, including national fellowships described in the filing as prestigious and limited to a select pool of trainees.
The complaint alleges that after Sami was elected Chief Resident in or around March 2023, she was assigned more administrative work than non-Muslim and non-Pakistani co-chief residents. The filing says those alleged duties included booking rooms, handling department-related administrative requests, creating quality improvement measures, developing teaching workflows, and fielding resident absence notifications.
Sami also alleges that she was subjected to greater scrutiny than comparable residents and that administrative demands interfered with her training. The complaint states that she raised concerns about allegedly excessive and disparate assignments with program and department leadership, the Office of Graduate Medical Education, and the Office of Access and Equity.
The filing describes comments and incidents that Sami alleges reflected assumptions about her religion, ethnicity, or national origin. These include an alleged question about Eid prayer and alleged repeated directions to others to ask Sami how to pronounce a Hebrew name, which she says reflected an assumption that she spoke Arabic because she was Muslim and wore hijab.
On September 29, 2023, Sami resigned from the Chief Resident role. The complaint alleges that the responsibilities placed on her had severely affected her health and wellbeing and that program leadership did not provide substantive follow-up after her resignation.
The complaint further alleges that Sami’s treatment worsened after she disclosed that she had close friends in Gaza, Palestine, and that the ongoing military offensive in Gaza had affected her ability to complete a patient note. According to the filing, she was later reminded about timely note completion, advised to consider a leave of absence, and resigned from the Women’s Mental Health Fellowship because she feared increased scrutiny could jeopardize her residency training.
The complaint pleads associational discrimination claims based on Sami’s alleged association with Palestinians. It alleges that her perceived association with Palestinians was a motivating factor in adverse treatment, including alleged loss of training opportunities, non-selection for a faculty position, and post-employment interference with job opportunities.
The filing also states that, according to defendants, an internal complaint was later filed accusing Sami of antisemitism and discrimination against an Israeli Jewish individual. Sami alleges she learned of that accusation more than a year later through defendants’ EEOC position statement and disputes the basis for it.
Sami also alleges that she reported the smell and sounds of exhaust fumes in an outpatient clinical building on or about November 7, 2023, and that she reasonably believed the issue raised workplace safety concerns. That report forms part of her Illinois Whistleblower Act claim.
After resigning from the Chief Resident role, Sami alleges that she was restricted from teaching certain didactic or problem-based learning sessions, subjected to additional review of teaching materials, and treated differently from comparable residents who had not complained of discrimination and did not share her protected characteristics.
The complaint further alleges that three senior residents who were not Muslim, not Pakistani, and who did not similarly associate with Palestinians or file discrimination complaints were offered faculty positions upon graduation, while Sami was not offered a faculty position.
Following graduation, Sami alleges that she had difficulty obtaining employment and that program leadership ignored or declined to complete credentialing or reference paperwork in response to inquiries from third parties and potential employers. She alleges this impeded her ability to secure employment.
Sami filed two charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to the complaint. The filing states that the EEOC issued a notice of right to sue on the first charge after finding reasonable cause to believe violations occurred as to some or all matters alleged in that charge, and later issued a notice of right to sue on the second charge.
For HR leaders, the complaint highlights process risks that can arise when employees allege uneven workload distribution, inadequate complaint handling, inconsistent access to teaching or employment opportunities, internal counter-complaints, and post-employment reference or credentialing issues.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
