SPRINGFIELD – A Springfield nonprofit has had state grant funding frozen by the state, limiting HIV testing and other essential programs.
The Phoenix Center has been under investigation from Illinois agencies for more than two years and is now losing funds.
In January of 2024, the Illinois Department of Public Health investigation began an investigation into the Phoenix Center grant use, funded through the department. The investigation in conjunction with Illinois State Police has led to all previous grants the nonprofit received, including HOPWA, the John Pritzker Family Fund, to freeze according to the center.
Alleged fraud
The nonprofit refuses to share why the funds have been withheld, but previous employees say over a decade of state grant fraud led by previous Phoenix Center executive director Jonna Cooley led to the grants being frozen.
Executive director Teresa Silva also believes actions taken by the previous administration led to the funds being frozen.
Silva, who took the role as interim into executive director of the center following Cooley’s parting, said she couldn’t share any additional information on why the more than $1 million had been frozen until the state investigation is finished.
Two past employees of the center believe that the board of directors knew of IDPH’s investigation into grant funding fraud regarding HIV testing before Cooley left the center.
Jaime Estell joined The Phoenix Center in August of 2023 as director of housing and was fired as a case manager in December of 2024. Duane Williams, who co-owns Fluid Bar downtown with Estell, previously was hired by the Phoenix Center in 2024 for director of operations.
Williams said at the start of the IDPH investigation in 2024 when he was new to his position, he and Estell were both asked by Cooley to collect papers and exchange documents into different files, before packaging them to be sent away.
Williams said it felt off, and told then-board treasurer Gina Snook in late March, before reaching out again to then-board vice president Terry Dobbs, he believed what he had done was destruction of files.
The destruction of files Williams says he was instructed to do is the official reason and and Estell were fired.
“We prepared the files for the state to pick up,” Williams said. “The two newest employees who were the least involved with any of the grant funding … I wasn’t aware what we were doing was destroying evidence. We were told to.”
What was in the files? Estell and Williams both say the core of the investigation revolves around HIV testing grants.
When an HIV test is run by an organization, the test is then sent to a type of grant to receive financial aid from the government to provide service to the person.
Williams and Estell allege over the course of 13 years under Cooley, HIV tests were submitted multiple times to more than double funding across five grant types.
“What was happening was each scope, each person, was being entered into multiple grants (they didn’t qualify for),” Williams said.
“To keep things simple, Duane (Williams) is an A-1, a white man,” Estell continued. “She was taking A-1 tests and putting them into Black men, into drug uses (demographic) when he has never used drugs in his life. So, she was taking this one person and getting multiple funds for them.”
The Ryan White CARE and HOPWA services are administered by the IDPH and provides people living with HIV low income access to housing and support services.
Williams said following his firing at the Phoenix Center in 2024, state general inspector Dave Harmon reached out to him on Jan. 30, 2025.
Both former employees say they just wish the center would have come forward with more transparency earlier and putting the communities main LBGTQ service in peril.
“They had the perfect opportunity to tell the truth, but they have silenced Jaime and I at every possible turn and they’re lying to people,” Williams said about the whole experience. “What are you actually doing for this community besides throwing parties and hosting after parties at the (Clique) lining someone else’s pockets?”
How much is being withheld from the Phoenix Center?
Since 2023, the Phoenix Center has lost $1.4 million in grant funding.
In fiscal year 2024, the Phoenix Center financial reporting through an I-990 form had a net loss of $1,008,036. The net loss comes from operation costs, and in 2024 reported total assets at $1.7 million on Candid, a nonprofit research tool.
In a 10-year breakdown of finances from the Phoenix Center, government funding dropped from $1,446,358 in 2023 to $810,053 in 2024.
The freezing of state funds has been a slow trickle, not an automatic stop. In 2025 Silva said there is no more funding coming through to the organization from the state.
The largest funder was the Pritzker Family Foundation grant, totaling $550,000.
The Phoenix Center still receives the Sangamon County Narcan Grant, which provides naloxone, a lifesaving opioid overdose kit to hand out, Silva said. The organization also raised $65,469 through events like PrideFest in 2024.
Phoenix Center response
Vice president of the board Chris Ankrom, board president Josh Wright and Silva all made clear going forward, the Phoenix Center staff want to speak on the situation but just cannot at this time.
All three said the main point going forward was to continue providing services for LGBTQ+ people in the city, and relying on the community for what they need to keep open.
“There is a real liability and irresponsibility in us putting anything out publicly before absolute conclusions are drawn and puts an investigation in real harm,” Silva said. “We are eager for the investigation to wrap up, State police doesn’t operate on any timeline other than their own. People want us to say something but it would be irresponsible and put the investigation in danger.”
There has been restructuring at the Phoenix Center including a new board of directors, as well as checks and balances put in place to “never let something like this happen again.”
The previous board of directors included Snook, Karen Reynolds, Terry Dobbs and Denna Marshall-Hall.
The new administration consists of Wright, Ankrom, Candice Trees and Donnie Killen.
Wright also owns for-profit bar Clique, a gay bar at 411 E. Washington St. in downtown.
“This new leadership recognizes the importance of being transparent,” Silva said.
Jonna Cooley
On Nov. 22, 2024, Cooley retired from her role as executive director at the Phoenix Center after 18 years.
Cooley helped launch PrideFest in 2011 to mark the center’s 10th anniversary.
Before the Phoenix Center, Cooley resigned from Sangamon County Child Advocacy Center under suspicion of alleged misuse of the center’s funds.
Eventually, Cooley pleaded guilty to a single charge of forgery on Feb. 2, 2009, and was sentenced to 30 months probation and fined $1,500. Cooley also was ordered to pay $8,000 in restitution.
Williams says before Cooley’s leave of the organization, a buyout from IDPH was offered to The Phoenix Center for half a million dollars in penalties in June of 2024 to pay back duplications.
“Jonna refused it,” Williams said. ‘They would have had to remove her, that was one of the stipulations and she wanted to fight it. All of this could have been avoided; they could have gotten off the stop payment list, would have kept their grants but they would have owed the state half a million dollars.”
Following her 2024 retirement, Jonna Cooley now works at Illinois College as the Empower Your Life Program Coordinator since early 2025.
Calls made to Cooley were not returned.
(This article has been updated because a previous version included an inaccuracy and to add a photo.)
Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@usatodayco.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield nonprofit loses state funding amid fraud claims
Reporting by Claire Grant, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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