Yale’s School of Medicine recently launched a “Task Force on Gender Equity”.

Meanwhile, a doctor who was removed as director of the cardiovascular research center over accusations of sexual misconduct, indicates he is being defamed while the school pursues a sex harassment case against him.

… Monday, Yale President Peter Salovey, Provost Ben Polak and medical school Dean Robert Alpern attended the “inaugural meeting” of the School of Medicine’s Task Force on Gender Equity to address issues such as the incident involving Simons’ overtures to a former colleague, Dr. Annarita Di Lorenzo.

In a letter to the Yale community, Salovey said he told the task force “in the strongest terms that the work of this group of faculty is a priority for the university as well as the school. The Task Force was charged by the dean ‘to define areas in which we can eliminate barriers to the advancement of women faculty at [the school], and ensure that we have in place all appropriate policies, procedures and measures necessary to ensure gender equity.’”

In an email to the Register, Dr. Michael Simons wrote, “I have taken responsibility for what I did, briefly pursue a junior but not subordinate colleague. But the latest charges used to justify the Medical School’s actions are both false and defamatory and I am deeply troubled by them.”

Simons was referring to an email by Dr. Gary V. Desir, acting chief of the Department of Medicine, who had removed Simons from his leadership post at the center, which is composed of more than 100 researchers, according to its website.

A Yale spokeswoman confirmed Simons’ removal as director.

According to a New York Times report, Desir’s email said Simons and other senior faculty had pressured others “to make favorable comments to the press and to write in support of Mike.”

However, in his email to the Register, Simons wrote, “Specifically, I never pressured anyone to speak up on my behalf, and was honestly grateful that many colleagues offered to do so. Nor did I, or would I ever, encourage any researcher or professor to submit material written by another.”