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The vice president of the Appraisal Institute, a professional association of real estate appraisers, was voted out of his leadership position on Wednesday, less than two weeks after an exposé highlighted allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation against him.
The New York Times reported that the 28-member board of directors voted by a two-thirds majority on Wednesday to oust Craig Steinley, who served as the institute’s president in 2023, from his role as vice president.
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The vote followed a May 8 report by The Times that exposed allegations that Steinley had groped women without their consent. Steinley stepped away from his role following the initial report, which sent the institute into turmoil as it debated how to move forward before voting to remove him.
The Times found that Steinley was named in a May 8 wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Appraisal Institute CEO Cynthia Chance, who accused Steinley of groping her and making lewd comments about her.
Separately, Alissa Akins, the Appraisal Institute’s former director of education and publications, sued the association on March 28, alleging she was fired from her job in December in retaliation for exposing problems with the administration of licensing exams used by state regulators.
The swirling allegations sent the institute into a crisis response that culminated in Steinley’s ouster on Wednesday night.
Steinley has denied the allegations, and the institute itself “categorically and whole-heartedly denies that it has at any time engaged in fraudulent or retaliatory conduct,” in its administration of licensing exams or in its dealings with Akins.
Steinley’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday morning.
A web page that earlier this month listed Steinley as the organization’s vice president no longer includes him as of Thursday morning.
Through a statement shared by his attorney, Craig Capilla, Steinley told The Times on Wednesday evening that the decision to remove him was “a deliberate act of retaliation driven by internal politics.”
The original exposé was written by The New York Times‘ Debra Kamin — whose 2023 exposé of allegations of sexual harassment at the National Association of Realtors led to the resignation of NAR President Kenny Parcell. The latest investigation included details from interviews with 12 women “who said they have had uncomfortable interactions with Mr. Steinley.”
Kamin, who interviewed more than 20 appraisers and former Appraisal Institute staff members, obtained a confidential legal settlement in which the association paid $412,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim by former Chief Financial Officer Beata Swacha.
The Appraisal Institute maintains that allegations it ignored Akins’ warnings about its examination processes or retaliated against her “are not true, and we will fight this lawsuit in court.”
In her March 28 complaint, Akins said that after being hired in February 2024, she discovered that due to inconsistent updates of minimum passing scores that vary by state, the Appraisal Institute had in some years mistakenly passed students who failed, and in other years failed students who passed.
A rescoring of a random sample of 300 Appraisal Institute exams found at least 17 percent had been scored incorrectly — raising the possibility that hundreds of people were wrongly certified as appraisers — or were told they’d flunked exams they’d actually passed, Kamin reported.
When Akins discovered the issue and put forward a plan to correct it, the Appraisal Institute “refused to take action or make any of the suggested improvements,” her lawsuit claims. So Akins “demanded that her signature be removed from the certificates evidencing successful completion of a course, including passing the course exam.”
Akins claims in her suit that she was told if she did not resign, Steinley “will make it hell for you as long as you stay” and that she was fired when she refused.
In seeking to dismiss Akins’ lawsuit in a May 2 filing, attorneys for the Appraisal Institute said her complaint “fails to state any claim upon which relief may be granted,” and that even if proven, her allegations “are inadequate to allege fraud.”
