A former in-house lawyer for Educational Alliance has sued the New York City nonprofit for discrimination and retaliation, alleging executives fired her for raising concerns about discriminatory pay policies that shaped her own salary and the pay of at least 50 other employees.

Patricia Charlemagne, who is African American, was one of five executive directors at Educational Alliance when she took on the additional role of in-house counsel role in 2019, according to her federal complaint filed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York. Charlemagne was the only Black executive director at the organization, and was paid less than all four of her peers, the complaint alleged. This includes a colleague who became a director a year after Charlemagne joined the Educational Alliance.