A U.S. magistrate judge in the Southern District of Florida filed a report and recommendation that the federal court deny the defendant’s motion to dismiss in the case Velazquez v. University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.

In 2015, Omaida C. Velazquez was appointed department chair and surgeon-in-chief at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida. She became the first Latina to lead a major academic department of surgery in the U.S. According to the lawsuit, she played a critical role in the department’s rise in national academic rankings from 27th to 11th.