Michael Lomax

Dr. Michael Lucius Lomax (born October 2, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) is, since 2004, the president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund of the United States. Lomax is the son of Lucius W. Lomax, Jr. (1910–73), a Los Angeles attorney, and Hallie Almena Davis Lomax (1915-2011), a journalist. [1]

Lomax taught literature at Morehouse College and Spelman College, Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia.[2] For seven years he served as president of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was able to increase enrollment by nearly 70%; complete $54 million in acquisitions and renovations, including the first new academic building since 1993, the Dillard University International Center for Economic Freedom; double the university’s assets; and nearly triple the fundraising from alumni, individuals, corporations and foundations.[3] Lomax was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa in 2000 at Dillard, and was later awarded the organization's highest honor, the Laurel Crowned Circle.

Lomax also served for 12 years as Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Fulton County, Georgia, part of the greater Atlanta, Georgia, region.[4] In 1989, he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for mayor of Atlanta.[5][6]

Lomax also serves as the Chairman of the Board of the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP), which provides support for institutions of higher learning to build relationships and create partnerships with the government and other organizations. He is also Chairman of UNCF’s Advisory Board for the Frederick D. Patterson Institute, which is the first black-led research institute in the country to design, conduct, analyze, interpret and disseminate research to the public, policymakers, and educators.

Lomax’s ongoing involvement in civic affairs also includes service on the United Way of America's board of governors, and on the board of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the National Black Arts Festival, of which he was founding chair. He is on the board of Teach for America, Emory University, The Carter Center, and a member of Sigma Pi Phi fraternity. U.S. President George W. Bush appointed him to the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and United States Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert appointed Dr. Lomax to the National Museum of African American History and Culture Plan for Action Presidential Commission.

Lomax was the brother of Los Angeles civil rights lawyer Melanie E. Lomax, who died in 2006. Lomax and his wife, Cheryl Ferguson Lomax, have two daughters, Michele and Rachel. His oldest daughter, from a previous marriage to playwright and author Pearl Cleage, Deignan Cleage Lomax, graduated from Dillard University in 2000. Lomax and his family live in Atlanta, Georgia.

He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.