DMichaelR Lomax hasE a dream:AM helping others realize theirs

Jeffrey G. Harris, MBA & Richard A. Skinner, Ph.D. he killing of George Floyd made the nation face up to a cruel reality: The United States criminal justice system is not colorblind. Appalled by videos chronicling Floyd’s final moments, hundreds of thousands of protesters — Black and WhiteT alike — took to the streets demanding an end to police LISTEN IN brutality and the eradication of systemic racism within law enforcement. Meanwhile, soaring COVID-19 infection rates among minorities laid bare profound disparities in the delivery, consumption and effectiveness of the U.S. healthcare system. One of the most v alarming statistics: Black Americans are three times more likely than White Americans to contract the virus and twice as likely to die from it. Researchers scrambling to explain such disparities have cited numerous factors, including discrimination, economic inequality, occupational risk and a longstanding dearth of Black physicians. Although Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population, Michael L. Lomax, PhD, they constitute just 4% of the nation’s physicians. president and CEO of UNCF, “The low number of Black physicians,” the National Institutes of assesses the long-term Health concluded in a recent report, “is itself a crisis.” impact of 2020 in the latest Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D., isn’t an I-told-you-so kind of guy. If, installment of Innovators. however, anyone had ample justification to shake his head in The podcast, presented by righteous indignation, it would be Lomax. After all, he has spent the Harris Search Associates, is bulk of his adult life not only decrying racial inequities but also, available on the web at more importantly, seeking remedies — most rooted in educational HarrisSearch.com and on opportunity. leading podcast platforms, Since 2004, Lomax has been president and CEO of UNCF including Libsyn, Apple (United Negro College Fund), the organization behind one of the Podcasts, Google Podcasts, nonprofit sector’s most iconic mottos: “A mind is a terrible thing to Stitcher, and Spotify. waste.”® As People magazine put it in a profile published earlier this year, Lomax’s lifework is to give young Blacks “an option that is just a dream for many who don’t have the means.” That option, of course, is a college education.

v

Fibonacci Blue / Creative Commons The killing of George Floyd prompted hundreds of thousands of protestors — Black and White alike — to demand sweeping reforms.

UNCF, which bills itself as “the nation’s largest thousands of students it has aided, on the nation’s and most effective minority education HBCUs and on America’s minority community as organization,” has a three-pronged mission: a whole. supporting students’ education and development Over its 76-year history, UNCF has raised through scholarships and other programs; more than $5 billion in donations — almost $3 strengthening its 37 member colleges and billion in the past decade alone. That money has universities, all historically Black institutions; and enabled more than 500,000 students to earn advocating for college readiness for all Americans college degrees. and support for all historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). “UNCF envisions a nation where all Americans Turning point? have equal access to a college education that n a just-released installment of Innovators, a prepares them for rich intellectual lives, podcast produced by the higher education competitive and fulfilling careers, engaged executive search firm Harris Search citizenship and service to our nation,” the Associates, Lomax speculated on the long- organization says in its manifesto. “UNCF’s Iterm significance of Floyd’s death and mission is to build a robust and nationally COVID-19’s disproportionate toll on minorities: recognized pipeline of underrepresented students Will they prove to be true inflection points — who, because of UNCF support, become highly history-altering occurrences that finally prompt qualified college graduates and to ensure that our the nation to recognize, and rectify, the 400 years network of member institutions is a respected of discrimination and degradation that Blacks model of best practice in moving students to and have endured at the hands of White oppressors? through college.” “I think the jury's still out as to whether this is The organization says its “North Star” is “to a moment — the beginning of a movement — or increase the total annual number of African something of a blip,” Lomax told Innovators host American college graduates by focusing on Richard A. Skinner, PhD, a two-time former activities that ensure more students are college- university president who now serves as a senior ready, enroll in college and persist to graduation.” consultant for Harris Search Associates. Since its founding in 1944, UNCF has, by most any measure, had a profound impact — on the

In the wake of Floyd’s death, conventional Lomax said this summer via social media that he wisdom seems to be leaning toward “movement.” was “buoyed and uplifted” by the donors’ generosity The protests that began in Minneapolis, where and added that he would do everything in his power Floyd died May 25, quickly spread nationwide, to ensure that such “incredible gifts” delivered the fueled by allegations of police brutality or excessive “maximum impact.” force in communities as far-flung as Buffalo, New Nevertheless, in his conversation with York; Lancaster, California; Vinita, Oklahoma; Innovators, Lomax was cautious in characterizing Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Sylvania, Georgia; the past year and in assessing its overarching Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Lafayette, Louisiana. significance in the struggle for racial equality. Then came the reports that the novel coronavirus “This may be a changing point,” Lomax told was no equal-opportunity killer. “Too Many Black Skinner, “but I’m not certain that it is, because at Americans Are Dying from COVID-19,” read the the same time you’re seeing so many strongly held headline of an August 1 editorial in Scientific views that are supportive of African Americans, American. The subhead was equally blunt: “The you’re also seeing a lot of opposition. I do feel that as pandemic has exposed a glaring health gap caused much as racial attitudes have changed, a lot of old by systemic racism.” racial attitudes are being revealed.” Many journalists, editorial writers and television At 73, Lomax has witnessed many spasms of pundits rushed to declare that fundamental change social conscience. Unfortunately, all too often, the was afoot. A Google search reveals that no fewer zeal of the moment gives way to apathy and the than 239 news stories have characterized Floyd’s accompanying activism dissipates — because of killing as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” A fatigue, ennui or shifting priorities, because of headline in Time magazine heralded “America’s withering pressure to maintain the status quo, or Long Overdue Awakening to Systemic Racism,” because of delusions of victory. while The New York Times proclaimed, “Black “If I’m not pessimistic,” Lomax said, “I’m at least Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. not going to take my eye off of the fact that we have History.” In an interview with Business Insider, to continue to keep fighting for what we want — and journalist Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best- I don’t mean being violent or pugnacious; I mean seller The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can just being determined and persistent. I tell my Make a Big Difference, suggested that Floyd’s death grandchildren: ‘Nothing is going to be given to you. and its fallout might represent a true "tipping point” You’ve got to fight for it, and you’re going to have to in American policing. continue to fight to hold on to what we’ve The events of 2020 also triggered an achieved.’” unprecedented philanthropic outpouring. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg committed $100 million to four historically Black Firsthand perspective medical schools: Meharry Medical College, the omax was born in Los Angeles in 1947, two Morehouse School of Medicine, the Howard years after the end of World War II. Race had University College of Medicine, and the Charles R. moved to the forefront of the American

Drew University of Medicine and Science. A consciousness, driven in large part by the number of HBCUs received record-setting Lhomecoming of more than 1 million Black veterans donations from the likes of novelist MacKenzie who, having risked their lives to defeat oppression Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; Netflix abroad, hoped to enjoy the fruits of freedom in their CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin; and own country. hedge fund manager Seth Klarman and his wife, Other forces for change included the Beth Schultz Klarman. introduction of anti-discriminatory reforms in “Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with public policy at the federal level, the northward a mixture of heartbreak and horror,” Scott wrote in migration of hundreds of thousands of Blacks from a social media post. “Life will never stop finding the Jim Crow South, and the growth of civil rights fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems, or organizations such as the Congress of Racial waking us up to the fact that a civilization this Equality (CORE) and the National Association for imbalanced is not only unjust but also unstable. the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), What fills me with hope is the thought of what will which, during the war, experienced a tenfold jump come if each of us reflects on what we can offer.” in membership.

In Lomax’s childhood home, the fight for racial equality — and the other issues of the day — were THROUGH always front and center, thanks to Lomax’s THE YEARS father, a prominent attorney, and his mother, a pioneering 1944 journalist and UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is newspaper publisher. founded on April 25, 1944, by a group In 1961, following his that included Frederick D. Patterson, parents’ divorce, Lomax president of the Tuskegee Institute; moved with his mother economist William J. Trent; and Mary to Tuskegee, Alabama, McLeod Bethune, an adviser to where, he recalls, he got President Franklin Roosevelt. a firsthand look at the “brutalization of African Americans under segregation.” After 1957 earning a diploma from After earning the Pulitzer Tuskegee Institute High Prize for Profiles in Courage, School at age 16, he Senator John F. Kennedy headed to Morehouse donates his winnings — College in Atlanta. He $500 — to graduated Phi Beta UNCF. v Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in English. Defying naysayers who suggested he might 1972 not be talented enough UNCF adopts the motto “A mind is a terrible thing to to succeed at a majority waste.” The phrase, crafted by Young & Rubicam White institution, executive Forest Long, will become one of the most Lomax earned a widely recognized slogans in advertising history. master’s degree in English literature from Columbia University and a doctorate in 1980 African American Three-time studies from Emory Grammy® University. winner Lou Lomax taught Rawls begins the English at Morehouse Parade of Stars, a 2004 and later at Atlanta’s telethon Michael Lomax, who boosted Spelman College, but his benefiting UNCF. enrollment at New Orleans’ work transcended the He will host the Dillard University by nearly classroom. In 1974, he annual event 70% during his seven-year was hired as director of until his death in tenure as the school’s research for the mayor 2006, raising president, becomes of Atlanta. In that role, more than $200 president and CEO of UNCF. he helped establish the million. city’s Office of Cultural Affairs, an agency he subsequently led.

In 1978, Lomax’s longstanding interest in to be a glass-half-full, not a glass-half-empty public service prompted him to run for a seat on person. But I’m concerned — maybe because I’m the seven-member Fulton County Board of older, maybe because of what I was dealing with Commissioners, the governing body in Atlanta’s when I was in college and when I was a young home county. Lomax won, and, two years later, he professional fighting for my rights, and maybe was elected the board’s chair, a first for an African because I have children and grandchildren, and American. He held the position for 12 years, I’m seeing that the world is very problematic for overseeing a $500 million operating budget and them.” some 5,000 county employees. From 1997 until 2004, when he assumed the leadership of UNCF, Lomax served as president The answer is education and professor of English and African world studies ot surprisingly, Lomax thinks the most at Dillard University, an HBCU in New Orleans. potent weapon in the battle for justice and Along the way, he founded the National Black Arts equality is education. Festival and lent his leadership know-how to a “Education has been very important for long list of high-profile educational endeavors, NAfrican Americans,” he said. “It’s something that including Teach for America, the Education we have always recognized we would have to fight Equality Project, the Aspen Institute’s for, because it’s so inextricably connected to your Commission on No Child Left Behind, and the economic place in society, it’s so inextricably tied to Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of your civic place, and it’s so inextricably tied to the African American History and Culture. quality of your life.” “In my life, race has always been a prominent Sadly, Lomax said, as long as Blacks have been issue,” Lomax told Innovators. “It’s always been seeking the benefits of an education, White something that we, as a people, have been working Americans have been throwing up obstacles often to achieve — our freedom, our rights as American through instruments masquerading as tools for citizens, the respect that we believe we are due.” advancement. Lomax pointed to the state- Although he has seen a great deal of progress, administered “aptitude tests” and “proficiency Lomax also has lived through a number of exams” of his youth. They were touted as a way to supposed milestones in the ongoing fight against identify — and exploit — latent talents and steer discrimination — events that, at the time, felt like students toward academic disciplines and/or genuine “turning points” in the journey to the careers in which they were likely to excel. In reality, promised land of justice and equality for all. There Lomax said, “they were used to limit was the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. opportunities.” Board of Education, which, in theory, ended legal “I remember being given exams and being told, segregation in America’s public schools. There was ‘Well, you know, you’re not quite good enough to President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Civil (take) the most advanced courses.’ We had to fight Rights Act of 1964, which, in theory, guaranteed to get me in the most advanced courses, and I did equal access to public places and employment. very well. Then they’d say, ‘You know, you’re not There was the passage of the Voting Rights Act of good enough to go to an Ivy League school.’ I didn’t 1965, which, in theory, prohibited state and local go to one for my undergraduate degree, but I went governments from imposing any legal barriers to to Columbia University and Emory University for black voting. There was the election of Barack my graduate studies, and I did very well. Every time Obama as the 44th president of the United States, I would go to one of these places, I did as well as I which, in theory, signaled the advent of a “post- did everywhere else — because I was capable of racial America.” doing that and because I was highly motivated. What Lomax has seen in the past has no doubt “People continue to put obstacles in the way of tempered his excitement about the enduring Black students and Black learners — financial impact of the social juggernaut known loosely as obstacles, quality-program obstacles — that have the Black Lives Matter movement. nothing to do with their capability. They just have “This is a different day than it was in the 1940s, something to do with the color of their skin or their and the 1950s, and even the 1960s, but I don’t feel economic status. I think a lot of the obstacles really any more secure in the rights that I have today,” go back to tribalism: White people want to be with Lomax said. “I want to be more optimistic; I tend white people, and Black people are often excluded.”

The desire of some Whites to prevent Blacks an arm of the organization that works to help from securing a first-rate education is not only member HBCUs become stronger, more effective frustrating to Lomax but also confounding. and more self-sufficient. Education, he notes, is “not a zero-sum game” but Lomax’s efforts appear to be paying off. The six- rather “an elastic opportunity.” Academic year graduation rate among UNCF scholarship advancement among Blacks does not — or should recipients is 70% — 11% higher than the national not — mean a commensurate setback for Whites. average for all students and 31% higher than the Instead, when it comes to education, everyone national average for all African Americans. should be able to thrive and, ideally, in doing so, “I spend my life in education because education generate new opportunity for those who follow. transforms us,” Lomax said. “It makes us fuller “What I’m fighting for is equality of opportunity. human beings and enriched human beings and I’m fighting for giving people the chance to get as more thoughtful human beings — and I think all of much education as they are prepared to work to those are qualities that we want to see more of in achieve.” the world. I can’t say whether we’re going to change At UNCF, Lomax oversees nearly 400 all of the racial attitudes in this country. I can’t say scholarship programs, which, together, award more whether we’re going to (provide) equality in than 10,000 grants a year. He has sought to economic opportunity. I don’t know. But one thing promote college readiness through partnerships I do know is that giving someone the opportunity to with a wide range of reform-focused leaders and get a great education is giving them the opportunity organizations, and he has worked with Congress, to have a greater ownership of their own life — and the White House and the U.S. Department of to put themselves on a pathway to personal Education to advance HBCUs. To that end, he also aspiration and transformation.” launched the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building,

About Harris Search Associates Harris Search Associates is a leading higher education, global executive search firm. Established in 1997 by Jeffrey G. Harris, the firm focuses on the recruitment of senior leaders to support the growth of universities, research parks, national laboratories, hospitals, and academic healthcare enterprises. Based in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, Harris Search Associates maintains regional offices in Dallas and San Francisco. The firm is a shareholder member of IIC Partners, one of the world’s largest executive search organizations, with 44 offices in 33 countries. About the Innovators podcast The Innovators podcast features timely conversations with global thought leaders in higher education, research, engineering, technology, and the health sciences. The audio segments, which allow listeners to learn from those at the forefront of change, innovation, and discovery, are available on the web at HarrisSearch.com and on leading podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Libsyn, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, Spotify, and PlayerFM. About Jeffrey G. Harris, MBA v Jeffrey G. Harris is founder and managing partner of Harris Search Associates. He is an active member of CUPA-HR, the American Council on Education (ACE), the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and the Executive Search Roundtable, a group dedicated to the development of best practices in higher education talent recruitment. Mr. Harris holds a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College and an MBA from the University of Dayton. v About Richard A. Skinner, Ph.D. Richard A. Skinner is a senior consultant at Harris Search Associates. He formerly served as president of Clayton State University in Atlanta and as president and vice chancellor of Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Dr. Skinner also was senior vice president for programs at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in government and international studies, both from the University of South Carolina.

Copyright © Harris Search Associates. All rights reserved.