Dr. Michael L. Lomax

Dr. Michael L. Lomax has been a Director of Cengage Group since January 2021. Dr. Michael L. Lomax has served as President and CEO of United Negro College Fund (“UNCF”), the nation’s largest private provider of scholarships and other educational support to African American students, since 2004. Under his leadership, UNCF has raised more than $3 billion and helped more than 110,000 students earn college degrees and launch careers.

At UNCF’s helm, Dr. Lomax oversees the organization’s 400 scholarship programs, which award 10,000 scholarships a year. He also launched the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building, which helps UNCF’s member HBCUs become stronger, more effective, and more self-sustaining. Under Dr. Lomax’s leadership, UNCF has fought for college readiness and education reform through partnerships with reform-focused leaders and organizations and worked to further advance HBCUs with Congress, the administration, and the Department of Education. Before joining UNCF, Dr. Lomax was president of Dillard University in New Orleans and a literature professor at UNCF-member institutions Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.

He also founded the National Black Arts Festival, was a founding member of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and served as chairman of the Fulton County Commission in Atlanta, the first African American elected to that post. He serves on the board of directors of the KIPP Foundation, Teach for America and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Dr. Lomax received a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College, a Master of Arts in English Literature from Columbia University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Emory University.