DCNR employee lawsuit settled

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of an employee of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, who claims she was the victim of a hostile work environment, has been resolved, according to a court order filed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines in Johnstown. 

The lawsuit was filed by Pittsburgh attorney Nicholas W. Kennedy on behalf of Emily Irvin of Windber, who worked as a resource ranger at Blue Knob State Park during the past three years.

Irvin contended in her federal complaint that she was repeatedly sexually harassed by one of her supervisors and that the park operations manager, James McCorkle, ignored her reports of harassment and retaliated against her by lowering her job performance rating and by refusing to send her to training sessions.

In November 2022, she took her case to the state Bureau of Equal Employment Opportunity.

In her lawsuit, she reported the state agency concluded that her underlying claim of sexual harassment was “substantiated.”

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