Trahanas v. Nw. Univ.

DIANE M. TRAHANAS, Plaintiff, v. NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY and STEVEN J. SCHWULST, M.D., Defendants.

No. 15 C 11192

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

December 23, 2020

Judge John J. Tharp, Jr.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

In her second amended complaint, plaintiff Diane Trahanas brings claims for a Title VII hostile work environment; retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act; defamation; and intentional infliction of emotional distress against defendants Northwestern University and Steven J. Schwulst, M.D. Before the Court is the defendants' motions for summary judgment and to exclude Professor Benjamin Clarke as a rebuttal expert witness. For the reasons set forth below, the defendants' motion to exclude is granted, and defendants' motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part.

BACKGROUND

A. Trahanas Is Hired into the Schwulst Laboratory

On June 11, 2012, Diane Trahanas started as a Research Technologist II in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Schwulst, an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery, Trauma and Critical Care at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Defs.' Statement of Undisputed Material Facts ("SOMF") ¶¶ 10, 3-4, ECF No. 104. Dr. Schwulst's scientific research focused on traumatic brain injuries. SOMF ¶ 12. As Dr. Schwulst's only research tech, Trahanas had responsibilities ranging from more ministerial tasks like purchasing mice for experiments to technical, research-oriented tasks such as inflicting mice with brain injuries, euthanizing them, and collecting and analyzing the mice's blood and tissue, and assisting with the preparation of research papers for publication. SOMF ¶¶ 17, 15. Trahanas was good at her job and the Schwulst lab was productive while she worked there, though Dr. Schwulst was away from the lab for two weeks per month due to his clinic responsibilities at Northwestern University Hospital. See SOMF ¶¶ 20, 37; Pl.'s Statement Add'l Undisputed Material Facts ("PSAF") ¶ 1, ECF No. 108-2. While Trahanas worked at Northwestern she co-authored four research papers with Dr. Schwulst and she twice traveled out of state to attend national scientific conferences with him. SOMF ¶ 20. At one of those conferences, she presented a poster describing the Schwulst lab's research. Id.

B. An Uncomfortable Laboratory Environment

Trahanas and Dr. Schwulst worked closely together throughout her employment at Northwestern. Trahanas admits that, at times, she and Dr. Schwulst got along "very nicely" and joked together. SOMF ¶ 26. However, Trahanas alleges that beginning in the fall of 2012, just a few months after her employment began, Dr. Schwulst started making different "verbally abusive" and "demeaning" comments that negatively impacted her work environment. Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶ 27, ECF No. 108-1. Trahanas alleges that Dr. Schwulst would refer to her as a "typical millennial" and "Princess Diana" in situations where he wanted to illustrate a mistake she made or to dismiss requests for guidance in her work. SOMF ¶ 27, Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶ 27. Other comments were gender-based. On one occasion, Dr. Schwulst allegedly asked Trahanas why she did not dress like Rana Saber, Dr. Perlman's lab manager, at work; Trahanas contends that Saber wore "stilettos, short shorts and low tops" in the lab. SOMF ¶ 32. Trahanas also claims that Dr. Schwulst often made comments like "after 28, women lose their sparkle," and that he "chided" her on severaloccasions leading up to her twenty-eighth birthday that "[her] sparkle is beginning to fade." Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶¶ 27, 33.

But the most egregious, and most frequent, topic of Dr. Schwulst's comments was Trahanas's perceived sexual orientation. Trahanas is a straight woman and Dr. Schwulst was aware that Trahanas dated men while she worked for him. SOMF ¶ 5, 25. However, Trahanas alleges that in October 2012, in the course of a conversation about Trahanas's workout routine, Dr. Schwulst commented that women who exercise too much look "manly" and "butch" and that they are lesbians. SOMF ¶ 28. He also asked, "You're a lesbian, Diane, aren't you, right? You're a lesbian." Id. After that initial conversation, Trahanas claims that Dr. Schwulst referred to her either as a lesbian or as a "softball player"—a euphemism for lesbian—"regular[ly] and frequently" during the weeks that Dr. Schwulst was actually present in the lab. SOMF ¶ 29, Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶ 29. Trahanas identifies two conversations that also involved similar comments: one conversation in May or June of 2014 where Dr. Schwulst remarked that it would "make his life easier if his daughter grew up to be a lesbian like [Trahanas]," and a second conversation in December 2014, where Dr. Schwulst told Trahanas that he was considering buying his wife a charm bracelet, and that if Trahanas were to wear one, it would "have a mitt, a ball and a bat on it because that's what softball players would do." SOMF ¶ 30.

Trahanas also contends that co-worker harassment contributed to the disrespectful work environment. Dr. Schwulst's bench space was located in a laboratory shared with two other research scientists at the University, Dr. Perlman and Dr. Stehlik. SOMF ¶ 13. As a result, Trahanas often interacted with members of the Perlman and Stehlik labs. One employee in particular, Rana Saber, is the chief source of her complaints; Trahanas claims that Saber would blame her "if something went wrong in the lab"; remarked that it was the "blind . . . leading theblind" when Trahanas showed other lab colleagues how to do something; asked Trahanas if she was "going to play softball" ten to fifteen times; and called Trahanas a lesbian "a few" times in front of their lab coworkers. SOMF ¶ 35. Trahanas also cites one email where Saber blames Trahanas for lab equipment being left on overnight. Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶ 35. Finally, Trahanas believes that Saber and Alexander Misharin, another member of the Perlman lab, intentionally sabotaged Trahanas's research for over six months by providing her with an outdated protocol for cell analysis. SOMF ¶ 21. Trahanas realized she had received an outdated protocol during a Perlman lab meeting; after the discovery, Dr. Perlman instructed lab members to ensure Trahanas had the more up-to-date version. SOMF ¶ 23

The extent to which relevant individuals in the University or in the Department administration at Feinberg were aware of this conduct is contested. None of their lab colleagues were present at the initial conversation about Trahanas's sexual orientation in October 2012, SOMF ¶ 28, but Trahanas claims that Dr. Schwulst would use the word "lesbian" or "softball player" to refer to Trahanas in front of her co-workers on a regular basis. SOMF ¶ 29. In response to Dr. Schwulst's remarks, Trahanas would "turn away from Dr. Schwulst, try to deflect the comment, act as if she did not hear it, or make an uncomfortable face." Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶ 27. But Trahanas did not report Dr. Schwulst's comments about her sexual orientation to anyone in the University's Human Resources department; she claims she chose not to because she feared he would retaliate. SOMF ¶ 28; Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶ 34. Nor did Trahanas make a complaint about Saber's harassing conduct to any of her supervisors, SOMF ¶ 35, or escalate her concerns about the alleged sabotage of her lab work beyond Dr. Perlman or Dr. Schwulst. SOMF ¶ 24.

C. Conflict Over Trahanas's Pay Raise and Promotion

Despite her allegations about the lab environment, by the spring of 2014, Trahanas had a strong work record at Northwestern: in both 2013 and 2014, Dr. Schwulst rated her performance as "Highly Effective," and in 2014, he complimented her progress in learning the different laboratory equipment and indicated that she "should be considered for a performance based raise." SOMF ¶ 41. In March 2014, Trahanas met with Dr. Schwulst to discuss her pay and performance, and expressed her desire to be retitled and for a pay increase. Id. Later that day, Dr. Schwulst emailed former Department Manager of Professional Affairs, Nicole Buikema, stating that he and Trahanas had discussed a pay increase and potential retitling of her position and asking how to begin that process. SOMF ¶ 39. Buikema told him that he could propose that Trahanas receive a pay increase in her 2013 performance review; that any pay increase would be effective at the beginning of the next fiscal year, September 1, 2014; and that retitling was done through a different process and required approval through the HR compensation team. Id. Trahanas was included on these emails. Id. In June 2014, Trahanas inquired directly with the Department of Surgery Financial Manager, Rachel Rufer, for an update on the potential retitling of her position. SOMF ¶ 42. Rufer responded that it was "something that is in the works for the new fiscal year which starts September 1," id., which, according to Trahanas, led her to believe that her promotion was a sure thing. Pl.'s Resp. SOMF ¶ 42.

In August 2014, Dr. Schwulst and Heather Burke, an HR employee, exchanged emails about Trahanas's merit pay increase and potential promotion. On August 13, Burke sent Dr. Schwulst the Research Technologist II and III job descriptions for his review, and asked him to ensure Trahanas was doing an appropriate level of work at the Research Technologist III level. Burke cautioned that "[i]f she is not doing this level of work, than [sic] a promotion to the highertitle may not be appropriate at this time." Id. Burke followed up with Dr. Schwulst on August 20 and September 2. On September 2, Dr. Schwulst responded that he had reviewed the job descriptions and concluded that "Diane is really inbetween [sic] tech 2 and 3," but that "[i]f possible I would like to make her a tech 3 at the minimum salary of 20.5." SOMF Ex. C, Dep. Ex. 247. Based on his response, Burke recommended leaving Trahanas as a Research...