Dr. Michael L. Lomax is stepping down after 22 years leading the United Negro College Fund, leaving behind a legacy of fundraising and a blueprint for institutional pivots toward economic mobility for students.
Lomax's departure, announced at UNCF's fifth annual UNITE conference in Atlanta on July 20, marks a turning point for an organization operating at the intersection of educational access and financial empowerment. The conference at the Signia by Hilton highlighted structural innovation that could outlast any single presidency.
The centerpiece was Project Acclaim, a program UNCF launched with investment firm Adage Capital Management. Instead of theoretical learning or simulated trading, the initiative places real capital—millions of dollars—directly into the hands of HBCU students tasked with managing institutional assets.
In its inaugural year, Morehouse College and Howard University each received $4 million. By year's end, Morehouse's portfolio had grown to $4.9 million and Howard's to $4.92 million. Students conducted actual research, defended live investment decisions and managed real institutional money.
"Rather than creating an environment of equal access to education, we wanted to create an environment of exceptional access to education," said Phillip Gross, co-founder of Adage Capital Management.
Project Acclaim has expanded to Morgan State University and Florida A&M University. UNCF announced it will accept applications from additional institutions and launch a Seed Grant program offering up to $350,000 over two years to at least six more schools over the next three years, with an explicit goal to scale the model across every HBCU in the country.
The approach treats student economic education not as an abstract skill but as a lived practice rooted in institutional stewardship. When young people from under-resourced communities manage real money for their own colleges, they develop decision-making skills, analytical rigor and confidence typically available to students at elite institutions.
Lomax, a Morehouse graduate who spent 20 years teaching at his alma mater and at Spelman College before moving into executive leadership, understood HBCU ecosystems from within. Under his stewardship, UNCF raised more than $4 billion and helped over 300,000 students complete college degrees.
When the pandemic forced UNCF to cancel fundraising events in 2020, Lomax retained every employee on staff and took a 40 percent pay cut himself. The organization ultimately raised $250 million that year—more than three times its $80 million target—driven largely by smaller donors and grassroots support.
"We raised three times the amount from them," Lomax said of the organization's broader donor base. "It was really from the bottom up, a groundswell of support."
Board Chair Milton H. Jones Jr. framed Lomax's transition in terms suggesting continuity rather than rupture. "In every conversation that he and I have shared about this moment, Dr. Lomax has returned to the same commitment: an orderly transition in a successor position, not merely to sustain UNCF's momentum, but to accelerate it," Jones said.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens opened the conference by positioning the city and its institutions as exemplars of Black institution-building and visionary leadership. Stacey Abrams, delivering remarks to the assembly, reframed HBCU support as a national imperative: "It is speaking up for HBCUs. It is investing in their leaders and investing in their futures. Together we will fight for HBCUs because that is how we fight for America."
By embedding financial literacy and asset management directly into the institutional experience of HBCU students, Project Acclaim creates practitioners, not just teaches concepts. Students graduate with experience managing capital, conducting due diligence and understanding how institutions build wealth.
Lomax leaves an organization that has proven it can mobilize resources at scale, weather institutional disruption without abandoning workers, and reimagine what "access" means in the context of genuine economic agency. The challenge for successor leadership will be sustaining and deepening this momentum while expanding Project Acclaim's model across the HBCU ecosystem with fidelity of execution.
The conversation at UNCF has shifted from sustenance to transformation. After more than two decades under Lomax's leadership, the organization is accelerating toward a vision where every HBCU student has access not just to education, but to tools and experience needed to build generational wealth.
