Finances, Mismanagement Allegations Threaten Howard Brown Health Center

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 5, 2010 4:40PM

Howard Brown Health Center, which has provided health care and wellness programs for the LGBT community for over three decades, announced yesterday that they're in pretty bad financial shape and may have to cease operations by year-end if they can't raise $500,000. That's going to be a lot of second-hand shopping at the Brown Elephant resale shops.

The financial situation is related to the April ouster of Chief Executive Officer Michael Cook and Chief Financial Officer Mark Joslyn after a National Institutes of Health investigation discovered that over $3 million in grant funds were mishandled between 2006 and March of this year related to the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) which has tracked HIV-positive and HIV-negative men since the mid-1980's.

Since the mismanagement was discovered, the NIH has referred the matter over to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General. Howard Brown has since made Northwestern University the lead agent of the study, but had to turn over $539,000 in grant money to fund them, thus accounting for the budget shortfall. Current Howard Brown CEO Jamal Edwards, in a letter posted on the Howard Brown website, outlined a "lifeline appeal" to raise $500,000 in 50 days.