LINCOLN — The director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence filed a complaint this week against the University of Nebraska, alleging that leaders discriminated against him and that retaliatory actions they took may have contributed to the early death of a patient.
According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska by Dr. Sunil Hingorani, University of Nebraska Medical Center officials heavily recruited Hingorani for two years to lead the center. While Hingorani said he wasn’t initially interested in leaving his previous position in Seattle, he eventually agreed to lead the center on the belief that NU would support his goal of finding a cure for pancreatic cancer within his lifetime.
Shortly after he began working at UNMC in 2022, however, his lawsuit claims he began hitting roadblocks. One of the first signs came when university officials allegedly resisted Hingorani’s marketing proposals for the PCCE.
Hingorani’s complaint says he was told by Nebraska Medicine’s former vice president of marketing and communications Frank Lococo that he couldn’t refer to the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence as a “center of excellence” in marketing. He said Hingorani first needed to apply for a clinical center of excellence designation by the National Pancreas Foundation…