Mr. Colin Browne worked as a program advisor for the UDC Career Counseling and Development Center. Throughout his term, he discovered many flaws within the system. For example, Kevin Naiker, the former Director of UDC’s “Team 100” retention program, and others were purposely spinning the retention numbers. UDC’s “Team 100” retention program is a federally funded program for at-risk students. Mr. Browne also discovered that Kevin Naiker, who was supervising him for his licensure, did not have a doctoral degree, nor was he licensed. As these discoveries came to light, Mr. Browne’s nightmare began, yet he faced adversity with courage and righteousness.
Mr. Browne informed management, UDC’s Board of Trustees and the President. However, his calls fell on deaf ears, and UDC took no actions to correct the problems. Furthermore, Mr. Kevin Naiker began retaliating against Mr. Browne. He did so by “auditing” Browne’s files, berating him in front of co-workers, passing him up for promotion, and ultimately terminating his employment.
On October 22, 2009 the D.C. Superior Court awarded Mr. Browne total damages of over $282 000 through the DC Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA). Thanks to Mr. Browne’s moral compass, his determined spirit, leading to his wresting of victory from a powerful bureaucracy, Whistleblowers can have their hopes of justice restored.
Intern Tommy Leung contributed to this blog entry.