CHAPEL HILL - UNC-Chapel Hill has agreed to pay $200,000 to a pediatrician whose salary was reduced by 40 percent after she returned from maternity leave three years ago, according to a settlement agreement filed by the state Attorney General's Office.

Dr. Adrea Theodore sued the university last year over discrimination on the basis of sex, pregnancy and race. The lawsuit alleged that several female faculty members complained of sex discrimination in pediatrics. Two leaders in the department were named as defendants: Dr. John T. Benjamin, who was a division chief of the department, and Dr. Alan Stiles, who was chairman of the department.

Neither Benjamin nor Stiles could be reached. A spokeswoman for UNC Health Care said officials could not comment on a personnel matter. In the settlement agreement, the university and UNC Health Care denied any unlawful conduct.

Theodore could not be reached. Her attorney, Caitlyn Fulghum, said the mediated settlement represented a large amount for a state agency. But Fulghum added, "You can't ever really undo the damage from something like this. Her career has been compromised in a way that's impossible to fix."

Theodore, who was first employed by UNC-CH as a medical resident from 1994 to 1999, served in several research and clinical roles for UNC Health Care, including director of the newborn nursery at UNC Hospitals in 2001. She was a clinical assistant professor and an attending physician. Her salary was paid by a combination of fees generated by her clinical work, research grants and a special fund for the recruitment and retention of minority faculty.

In 2004, Theodore became pregnant at the same time as another colleague in the department, the lawsuit said, and the two doctors had the same due date. The colleague sent an e-mail message to Benjamin discussing maternity leave plans. Benjamin responded by referring to the message as "a missile," the lawsuit said.

Theodore took family medical leave in December 2004 and planned to return to work in April 2005. But in a meeting with Benjamin and Stiles in 2005, the lawsuit said, Theodore was told that she would have to choose between a part-time position or a terminated contract in July. Theodore also was told she could no longer perform clinical duties and be paid by the department but that she could work part time in a research-only position in another department, reducing her pay by 40 percent and making her ineligible for benefits.

Theodore, who is black, alleged in the suit that white faculty members were given department funding.

Fulghum said there was never any performance problem or negative evaluation of Theodore. "She was described as an excellent clinician by people who supervised her." Further, Fulghum said, someone else was immediately hired to fill Theodore's clinical duties.

Theodore met with other female faculty members in the department to discuss discrimination complaints in 2005. Male physicians were commonly introduced as "Dr.," the lawsuit said, while female doctors were introduced by their first names. One faculty member was told she could not be serious about her career if she had another child, the lawsuit said, and another professor was denied a request for a door on her cubicle so she could pump breast milk for her infant. There was no lactation facility for faculty in the department that routinely advises its patients to breast-feed, the suit said.

A committee appointed to look into the matter concluded there were serious issues related to gender, the lawsuit claimed.

But in announcing the findings of the committee, the panel's chairman remarked that "all of this started because some women wanted to pump their breasts," according to the suit.