UNM Leaders Silent on Roles Played in Recruitment, and Subsequent Reported Mistreatment, of Hispanic Woman Resident Doctor
Learning Environment Office Silent on Questions it Capitulated to Dean of School of Medicine in Its Investigation and Recommendations of Mistreatment of Residents
(L to R, Diana Martinez, Director of the Learning Environment Office at UNM, Dr. Mike Richards UNM HSC VP, Dr. Patricia Finn, Dean of the UNM School of Medicine.)
UNM Health Sciences Center Officials Refuse Interview to Respond To Discrimination Questions
Dr. Mike Richards, interim Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and CEO of the UNM Health System, refuses to respond to the simple request of whether he met with a UNM medical student, encouraging her to choose UNM’s Neurological Surgery residency program over programs at more prestigious programs affiliated with Stanford, Baylor and Penn State.
He also won’t speak to the issues raised in the resident doctor’s mistreatment complaints.
Dr. Patricia Finn, the Dean of the New Mexico School of Medicine (SOM), refuses to respond to questions about her role in recruiting a medical student to join neurological surgery residency program and her promises to protect the student from mistreatment by SOM personnel.
And the SOM Learning Environment Office’s (LEO) Director Diana Martinez, is also mum regarding questions about her meetings with Dr. Finn regarding the mistreatment complaints leveled by medical resident, Dr. Samantha Varela.
Dr. Samantha Varela, Recognized by UNM as a Rising Star in Medical Community
Dr. Samantha Varela, who completed her pre-residency medical school studies at the UNM SOM in 2023, was featured in a September 2022 article prepared and released to the media by the HSC communications department.
UNM wrote, in the article headlined, Gifted Learner -UNM Medical Student Samantha Varela Has Her Sights Set on a Career in Neurosurgery:
“Growing up in Radium Springs, N.M., the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Samantha Varela set her sights on a medical career while she was in high school … Varela is already looking ahead to what she hopes to accomplish in her career. “I hope one day I can help other people that are minority like me apply to competitive specialties that seem out of reach to them,” she says. Her dream is to return to New Mexico to practice.”
UNM HSC Leaders Refuse to Discuss Alleged Discrimination Problems at School of Medicine
NOTE: UNM HSC, in a series of emails (see emailed responses below), has refused to answer questions raised by The Candle regarding the roles key School of Medicine and Health Science Center (HSC) officials played in the review and adjudication of the mistreatment allegations made by New Mexico School of Medicine (SOM) student learner Dr. Samantha Varela, who the University successfully recruited to join its neurological surgery residency program.
Dr. Varela, soon after being recruited, questioned promises she felt were made by Doctors Richards and Finn, and filed a mistreatment complaint with the Learning Environment Office, headed by Diana Martinez.
After several months, and several interactions with Director Martinez and LEO’s Assistant Director, Dr. Varela felt abandoned by Learning Environment Office.
In October of 2023, she filed a Human Rights Complaint with the state, alleging the University essentially turned a blind eye to, among other things, the discrimination she experienced in the residency program – as other physicians made racist comments suggesting she was the token Hispanic in the program.
Dr. Varela was also forced to file a second complaint that dealt with retaliation she encountered after she filed the initial Human Rights Bureau Complaint.
More of the elements of the Human Rights Complaint and the LEO complaint filed by Dr. Varela will be reported on in the second installment of this multi-part series regarding questionable practices at the HSC, the School of Medicine, and some research programs run under the HSC.
Doctors Richards and Finn, as well as Director Martinez, are all hiding behind a “confidentiality agreement” which is not so confidential as the elements of it have been published by the state on the New Mexico Sunshine Portal, and the University has acknowledged that the settlement agreement is a public document.
It is clear that Richards, Finn, and Martinez, and other UNM personnel (some named in Dr. Varela’s HRB complaint as perpetrators of the discriminatory behavior) are trying to avoid any publicity.
One important reason for the SOM and its officials trying to tamp down discussion of alleged mistreatment of student, resident, and fellow learners is likely because UNM recently got back its accreditation from the ACGME, after losing it in 2018. More on that in the next installment.
Another important reason for trying to keep the settlement discussion matters as quiet as possible might have been that Diana Martinez and her assistant, with the approval of the HSC, sought and received a special appropriation from the legislature of $1.75 million during the budget session last January and February 2024.
(Diana Martinez is the wife of Representative Javier Martinez, the very powerful Speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives.)
UNM quietly signed the settlement February 29, 2024.
Despite its silence on Dr. Varela’s claim that the Learning Environment Office officials failed in their mission to protect her, the same officials proudly announced the department’s expansion:
(HB 2, the general appropriation act of 2024 Contains the Following – SPECIAL APPROPRIATIONS – (215) UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO 1,725,000 “For the health sciences center for the learning environment office for expenditure through fiscal year 2027, with no more than five hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($575,000) expended in each fiscal year.”)
Responses from UNM HSC Media Office to Inquiries from The Candle
Over the last two weeks, The Candle has communicated by email, phone messages and texts to various HSC and SOM officials and media representatives. Here are some of the responses received.
Tuesday, December 10, 2024 – Response from UNM HSC Communications Director:
“Dr. Varela in 2023 brought two complaints under the New Mexico Human Rights Act. These were resolved with no admission of liability and Dr. Varela executed a general release. The terms of the settlement included a mutual non-disparagement agreement in place as well as a confidentiality agreement. Accordingly, we cannot comment further.”
After a lengthy followup email, explaining that the confidentiality agreement UNM was referring to was already a public document and contained the terms of the settlement agreement, therefore rendering moot any prohibition (other than disparaging statements) of UNM speaking of the matter publicly, The Candle received the following further response:
“At this time, no one else from UNM has further comment on this matter. For clarification, the agreement published on the state’s portal is the document referenced in the original statement.”
The responses above came about a week after The Candle’s original requests “to interview “to arrange an interview with Dr. Finn or other appropriate UNM HSC Research personnel regarding circumstances that led to Dr. Samantha Varela leaving UNM Residency program.”
UNM’s responses were as follows: “Thank you for reaching out. We will not accommodate an interview on this issue, but I’m working on a statement for you.”
Yesterday, The Candle tried once again to get more detail from UNM. Here are excerpts from The Candle’s email to the communications office at HSC:
“I understand the position the lawyers and leadership are likely putting you as the public information officer for the UNMHSC, however, unless the University has other settlement/release documents to which both Dr. Varela and the University (or their respective representatives) are signatories to relative to the settlement of the HRB complaints, there is nothing that prevents Dr. Richards, Dr. Finn or another spokesperson from speaking to factual elements of the events that led to Dr. Varela leaving the School Of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery.
“For instance, Dr. Finn and Dr. Richards are not prevented from answering questions that simply acknowledge that they met with Dr. Varela leading up to her decision to “match” at UNM SOM Department of Neurosurgery instead of the other Neurosurgery departments at nationally recognized schools of medicine.
“Nor would they be prohibited from acknowledging that they had discussions with the Learning Environment Office (LEO) director and/or assistant director regarding Dr. Varela.
“Such information is significant to the manner by which a government funded school of medicine (such as Doctors Richards and Finn and LEO Director Diana Martinez and Assistant Director Emma Naliboff Pettit are all employees of), operates in fulfilling its mission to protect resident and fellow learners under the requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and the mission of LEO to “foster an inclusive learning environment where teachers, staff, and learners thrive, and relationships are mutually respectful and beneficial to each other and to our institutional climate.”
“The UNM SOM, and especially the LEO’s programs, have a duty to live up to the promises they make to learners and residents and fellows at UNM’s SOM, especially as they have received additional funding from the legislature for this year through 2027, for their programs and for its claimed efforts to protect learners.
“For the University to hide behind a confidentiality clause that is essentially moot, is disrespectful to the learners the SOM claims to be protecting.
“I realize this is a sticky matter, and I do appreciate that you are trying to do your job.
“Please ask Doctors Richards and Finn to reconsider their availability to be interviewed or at least acknowledge they met with Dr. Varela and met and/or communicated with the LEO director Martinez and/or Assistant Director Emma Naliboff Pettit regarding Dr. Varela regarding her recruitment as a resident to the UNM SOM Department of Neurosurgery program and Dr. Varela’s alleged mistreatment.
“The Candle has held publishing our reporting to give the University an opportunity to acknowledge its role in Dr. Varela’s recruitment and exit from UNM’s SOM Department of Neurosurgery program.“
UNM HSC refuses to provide any further response.