Iraqi Claims American Boss Created Divisions

Company disputes former employee's version of the ‘chief of party's’ management style.

Nidhal Kadhim, an Iraqi and a former high school principal at the United Nations Baghdad International School, maintains that Creative Associates International Inc. could have done much more to improve schools in Iraq if it had made better use of the skills of her fellow citizens.

She contends that the last chief of party, or head of operations, she worked for there looked down on Iraqis, though she said the previous three chiefs of party who were her bosses were respectful to her. Ms. Kadhim was an adviser to the model schools program for the company from May 2005 to February 2006, when she resigned and moved to Amman, Jordan.

“I didn’t leave the country because I was threatened. I didn’t leave Creative because I was afraid of taking the risks,” she said by phone this month. “I was willing to take the risks if I were given an active role in things, but to be set aside when there were things that I could contribute to, this is the point...