Powe-Brown

I. Factual Background1

Plaintiff, an African-American, has been employed as a staff nurse by Kaiser since 1993. Plaintiff advanced from Staff Nurse III to the highest nurse level—Staff Nurse IV—on July 1, 2008, and has retained this status since that time. Plaintiff voluntarily transferred from Kaiser’s Oakland facility to Kaiser’s Antioch facility in October 2007, and continues to work there. When she first transferred to Antioch, she was a Staff Nurse III in the operating room. She reported to McCrarey, who reported to Lomboy. McCrarey was eventually replaced by Ciaccio. On June 3, 2008, Lomboy received an e-mail message from another staff nurse complaining that plaintiff showed a persistently negative attitude and had refused to communicate with certain staff members. Reportedly, her behavior was having a negative impact on the entire department. In her declaration in opposition to defendants’ summary judgment motion, plaintiff denied these allegations. Plaintiff received a performance evaluation in March 2009. The evaluation stated that she needed improvement in the area of cooperation and teamwork. Specifically, it noted she needed to improve on her communication with…