Dr. Michael L. Lomax is the president and CEO of UNCF—the United Negro College Fund—the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization. UNCF provides operating and program funds to its 39 member private historically black colleges and universities and their 60,000 students, and manages more than 400 scholarships—including the Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholarships—supporting nearly 10,000 students at over 900 colleges and universities.
Immediately before joining UNCF, he served seven years as president of Dillard University in New Orleans.
He graduated from Morehouse College, received his master’s degree from Columbia University and his doctoral degree in American and African American literature from Emory University. He taught literature at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges and the University of Georgia.
He served as the first head of the Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs; and was elected to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, serving as first African American chair.
Dr. Lomax is a trustee of Emory University and member of the Council of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
He serves on the board of Teach for America, the KIPP Foundation, The Carter Center, High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Studio Museum in Harlem, Bill T. Jones Dance Company, National Black Arts Festival and the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
