The University of North Carolina at Asheville faces a lawsuit alleging research misconduct and fraudulent use of grant funding within its North Carolina Center for Health & Wellness (NCCHW). A former research assistant, Aidan Settman, claims he was terminated in retaliation for exposing allegedly manipulated data in a COVID-19-era public health program.
Settman, a UNC Asheville graduate and current doctoral candidate, filed suit in February 2025 against the school and Emma Olson, the interim director of the NCCHW and Settman’s former supervisor. The core of Settman’s complaint centers on North Carolina’s whistleblower protection statute, which shields state employees from retaliation for reporting improper activities.
Settman claims he was protected under that statue and had an obligation to report the alleged misconduct he witnessed, but his status as a contractor at the time makes the law’s application in his case dubious.
The NCCHW received substantial funding — totaling over $1.27 million — for its Student Health Ambassadors (SHA) program, in which it also collaborated with the Mountain Area Health Education Center. The funding included a $610,000 grant in July 2020 from the North Carolina Collaboratory, utilizing federal CARES Act COVID-19 relief funds. That grant was supplemented by $660,369 from the Dogwood Health Trust, a private foundation that focuses on health for western North Carolina residents.
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