Former American Red Cross Pacific Islands Region CEO Diane Peters-Nguyen issued a written statement Wednesday saying she was fired in April, weeks after she filed complaints against her employer with the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over retaliation she alleges she faced for objecting to Red Cross’ treatment of Native Hawaiians and other lifelong Maui residents after the 2023 Lahaina fires.

The Red Cross mischaracterized what happened when it told a local business publication that she was stepping down after it announced the appointment of an interim CEO, the news release from the Bickerton Law Group says. The American Red Cross announced Tony Briggs as the interim CEO on May 9.

“The Red Cross is trying to sweep what it did to Ms. Peters-Nguyen under the rug just as quickly as it urged Hawaiians and lifelong Maui residents to move away from Maui after the catastrophic Lahaina fires, Bridget Morgan-Bickerton said in the release.

The complaints are not public, and Morgan-Bickerton declined to share the actual documents.

But Morgan-Bickerton told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser on Wednesday that Peters-Nguyen, a Native Hawaiian who graduated from Kamehameha Schools, is alleging discrimination in the complaints based on her ancestry. Peters-Nguyen also is alleging discrimination and retaliation because she raised concerns about Native Hawaiians based on their race and ancestry.

The statement references a December 2023 online story that brought attention to the practice by the Red Cross of encouraging Maui residents to leave the island after the fires.

In the story, one Lahaina resident said he and his wife could not find a rental home to replace the one lost in the fire because they ran a dog day care, grooming and boarding business out of it. He said he was repeatedly encouraged by the Red Cross to leave the island, but he was raised on Maui and shares custody of a daughter who lives there.

After that article appeared, Peters-Nguyen urged the Red Cross to stop the practice and retrain its shelter resident transition team, but it was not the first time Peters-Nguyen had expressed her concerns about this practice, the statement said.

Peters-Nguyen was placed on a “performance improvement plan,” soon after she expressed concerns, and eventually fired, the statement said.

“The abrupt and involuntary ending of my tenure with the Red Cross is extremely disappointing to me, particularly given our accomplishments over the past few years, a time of unprecedented disasters and challenges,” Peters-Nguyen said in the statement.

The EEOC is handling the complaint and it will go through an administrative process, Morgan-Bickerton said. The matter could be resolved through the EEOC, which offers mediation and does its own investigation, but it can take time, she added.

Alternatively, she could request the right to sue through the EEOC and file a lawsuit in a court of law, she said.

Such complaints must be filed with the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission within 180 days of the adverse employment action, demotion, or performance improvement plan, or 300 days with the EEOC, Morgan-Bickerton said.

Calls to the American Red Cross of Hawaii were not immediately returned.