NWC recognizes woman whistleblowers. These whistleblowers face unique challenges and despite sexism have spoken up in both the private sector and in the government, and found the courage to blow the whistle for the public good. Women whistleblowers have changed the world, please enjoy their stories below:
Florida scientist and COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones was fired from the Florida Department of Health in May 2020 for refusing to manipulate data and for asking her supervisor how to file a whistleblower complaint. Ms. Jones built the state’s highly-praised data dashboard and managed all public data during the first five months of the pandemic.
The Governor of Florida targeted Ms. Jones for her commitment to data transparency and government ...
A veteran math teacher, Mary Bozoyan, publicly criticized the principal of William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens, NY in a grade-fixing scandal and was swiftly retaliated against. Bozoyan’s allegations against the principal included illegally changing grades, falsifying records, stealing school funds, covering up sexual affairs between staff and students, and hiding a hazing incident.
Read: School ‘retaliates’ against disabled teacher for criticizing principal
Janet Chandler, a Chicago clinical psychologist, blew the whistle on “violations of patients’ rights scientific protocol” at a federally funded research project at Cook County Hospital on the treatment of pregnant cocaine and heroin addicts and their children.
Chandler brought a successful False Claims Act lawsuit against Cook County Hospital for forging data and failing to comply with federal human research regulations in a federally funded drug abuse study. As a young attorney, President Obama ...
Dr. Coleman-Adebayo sacrificed her career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to speak out against vanadium poisoning in South Africa. She is the author of, NO FEAR: A Whistleblower’s Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at EPA. NO FEAR tells the story of vanadium miners in South Africa and Dr. Coleman-Adebayo’s efforts to protect them. Although she won a historic jury verdict, the EPA continued its retaliation.
Dr. Coleman-Adebayo led the charge against racial discrimination and whistleblower retaliation ...
Cynthia Cooper exposed corporate misconduct in the infamous WorldCom scandal paving the way for the enactment of the SOX corporate reform law.
Cynthia Cooper exploded the bubble that was WorldCom when she informed its board that the company had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through the prestidigitations of phony bookkeeping.
In recognition of her whistleblowing, Cooper (along with Sherron Watkins and Coleen Rowley) was named Time Persons of the Year in 2002.
Julia Davis is a national security whistleblower, anti-terrorism/immigration expert, who exposed glaring shortcomings in the processing of applicants for admission into the U.S. from terrorist countries. Julia served as a Customs and Border Protection Officer at the San Ysidro Port of Entry – the largest and busiest land border crossing in the U.S. and in the world.
Specific intelligence alerts designated 4th of July, 2004 as a “Date to Watch” of paramount importance, when Al ...
Sibel Edmonds is the founder and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers. She appears frequently on national radio and TV as a commentator on matters related to whistleblowers, national security, and excessive secrecy & classification.
She has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Glamour, and others. Her book, ‘Shooting the ...
Vera English was a former General Electric (GE) employee who discovered widespread radiation contamination by GE. English was fired in retaliation for reporting the contamination in 1984. Her subsequent Supreme Court case established the right of whistleblowers to pursue cases under state law with the National Whistleblower Center filing an amicus brief in support for her case.
Vera English’s victory in the U.S. Supreme Court (English v. General Electric) set a ...
Lea Frye, a former senior reservoir engineer at Anadarko Petroleum Corp., raised concerns about the fraudulent overstatement of the value of oil reserves by Anadarko executives. In 2016, Frye filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging investor fraud and insider trading at Anadarko.
Her complaint alleged that executives at Anadarko misled investors and Occidental Petroleum, which purchased Anadarko in 2019, by fraudulently inflating the value of the company’s Shenandoah ...
Bunnatine “Bunny” Greenhouse served as the highest-ranking civilian-contracting official at the Army Corps of Engineers when she blew the whistle on a highly improper $7 billion no-bid contract to Halliburton for the repair of Iraqi oil fields following the 2003 invasion. In retaliation for her disclosures, Greenhouse was removed from her position.
After a long and contentious legal battle, her attorneys, including NWC President Michael Kohn, forced the Army Corps of Engineers to settle the ...
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory whistleblower Kiki Ikossi was retaliated against after filing complaints to the Navy Research Lab HR Office for workplace gender discrimination in the early 2000s. Her attorney, NWC President, Michael Kohn, argued her case, supported by briefs from other key NWC staff.
The decision in Ikossi v. England, together with two prior Court of Appeals decisions, Butler v. West and Evano v. Reno, form a trilogy of cases that ...
Tanya Ward Jordan blew the whistle on gross mismanagement, violation of civil rights laws, abuse of authority and flaws in the Department of Commerce’s application of a personnel pay system in the late 1990’s. As a result of her whistleblowing modifications to the personnel pay system were made; a workforce culture survey was conducted; and certain Commerce units as well as other federal agencies halted implementation of the pay system.
Learn more:
Commerce ...
Marcel Reid’s whistleblowing forced ACORN to stop misusing public funds and return to their core decentralized mission. Afterwards, she went on to join the National Board of Directors of Pacifica Radio and have Pacifica become the first national media organization to vote to support whistleblowers. Reid also became the first Whistleblower Liaison in Major Media. She now organizes the annual Whistleblower Summit for Civil and Human Rights with Michael McCray.
Coleen Rowley brought several of the pre 9/11 lapses to light and testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on some of the endemic problems facing the FBI and the intelligence community.
In 1990, Ms. Rowley was transferred to the FBI office in Minneapolis where she assumed the duties of Chief Division Counsel, which entailed oversight of the Freedom of Information, Forfeiture, Victim-Witness and Community Outreach Programs.
In May of 2002, Ms. Rowley testified before the ...
Dr. Tommie “Toni” Savage was a highly respected Army Corps of Engineers Supervisory Contracting Officer in Huntsville, Alabama. She was responsible for reviewing and awarding highly classified, high-profile Army contract programs. She was recognized by Huntsville’s Deputy Commander as the most valuable employee located in the Huntsville contracting office. Although showered with accolades, awards, and promotions, and after repeatedly being congratulated for her integrity and outstanding performance, her career came to a halt in 2006 ...
Americas first nuclear whistleblower, Karen Silkwood discovered numerous health violations, including exposure to high levels of nuclear contamination, at the Kerr-McGee nuclear power plant near Crescent, Oklahoma. In the summer of 1974, she testified to the Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns.
She joined the union and became an activist on behalf of issues of health and safety at the plant as a member of the union’s negotiating team, the first woman to have that position at Kerr-McGee. ...
Jane Turner, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent, led the Bureau’s highly successful program combating child sex crimes and crimes against women on Indian Reservations in North Dakotah. After discovering and exposing the FBI’s failures within the child crime program in 1998-1999, Turner was removed from her senior position in retaliation. Turner challenged her retaliation in federal court, fighting the FBI’s retaliation for nearly nine years. In 2007 the jury ...
Linda Tripp, a former White House employee, made disclosures to the Office of Independent Counsel that President Clinton had lied under oath resulting in him being found in contempt of court and losing his law license.
White House whistleblower Linda Tripp successfully challenged the Department of Defense when it illegally released confidential information from her security clearance file. The illegally released file was an act of retaliation for her role in presidential impeachment proceedings. The ...
Sherron Watkins exposed corporate misconduct in the infamous Enron scandal paving the way for the enactment of the SOX corporate reform law.
Sherron Watkins is the Enron vice president who wrote a letter to chairman Kenneth Lay in the summer of 2001 warning him that the company’s methods of accounting were improper.
In recognition of her whistleblowing, Watkins (along with Coleen Rowley and Cynthia Cooper) was named Time Persons of the Year in 2002.
In 1999 Sheila White challenged her employer, Burlington Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF), a giant in the railway transportation industry, by filing charges of discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation in the workplace against BNSF in the Western Tennessee. District Court (White v. Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway). The U.S. Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in favor of Sheila White in the case Burlington Northern & Santa Fe v. White on June 22, 2006.The ...
Commander Kimberly Young-McLear, Ph.D. exposed gross misuse of power in how the Coast Guard handled bullying, harassment, and discrimination allegations. An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General substantiated that she had been retaliated against for her whistleblowing activity. As a result of her whistleblowing, investigative loopholes for these types of claims by Coast Guard service members and federally employed civilians were closed. In 2023 NWC along with several other ...