UNCF Leader, HBCU Champion Michael L. Lomax to Address Shaw University Class of 2024

RALEIGH — United Negro College Fund (UNCF) President and CEO Michael L. Lomax will deliver the commencement speech to Shaw University’s class of 2024.

The graduation ceremony starts at 10 a.m. on May 11 in the Raleigh Convention Center.  

UNCF is the nation’s largest private provider of scholarships and other educational support for underrepresented students. With Lomax at the helm for the past two decades, UNCF has raised over $4 billion and helped more than 150,000 students earn college degrees and launch careers. Annually, 50,000 students make it to college through UNCF scholarships and attend one of its 37-member historically Black colleges and universities.

Shaw University is one of those member schools. 

During Shaw University’s inaugural HBCU Triumph Gala in December, Lomax accepted The HBCU Triumph Magnum Opus Award on behalf of UNCF. The event celebrated HBCU excellence, and the award that distinguished UNCF was a nod toward Lomax’s leadership. He launched UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building to help member HBCUs become stronger, more effective, and self-sustaining. 

Lomax, who earned a Ph.D. in American and African-American literature, was the fifth president of Dillard University in New Orleans from 1997 to 2004. During that time, student enrollment increased nearly 50%. Before that, Lomax was a faculty member at Morehouse and Spelman colleges.

Outside the academy, Lomax was the first African-American chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, with a $500 million annual operating budget and 5,000 employees. He oversaw the building of Georgia’s Interstate 400, co-chaired the Democratic National Convention in 1988, and helped bring the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta.