Page 7 - IMPACT Campaign Council Meeting - September 2020
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Michael Lomax                                          Frank Fernandez

          Since 2004, Dr. Michael L. Lo-                         Frank Fernandez was named the
        max has served as president and                        President and CEO of the Com-
        CEO of UNCF, the nation’s largest                      munity Foundation of Greater
        private provider of scholarships                       Atlanta in August 2020, replacing
        and other educational support to                       Alicia Philipp, who led the Foun-
        African-American students.                             dation for 43 years and announced
          Under his leadership, UNCF has                       her retirement earlier this year.
        raised more than $3 billion and                          The Community Foundation is
        helped more than 110,000 students                      a $1.2 billion community founda-
        earn college degrees and launch careers.  Annually,    tion serving the 23-county Atlanta region. It has been
        UNCF’s work enables 60,000 students to go to college   leading and inspiring philanthropy to increase the
        with UNCF scholarships and attend its 37 member        vitality of the region and the well-being of its residents
        historically black college and universities (HBCUs).   for 70 years. The Foundation expands its philanthrop-
          At UNCF’s helm, Dr. Lomax oversees the organiza-     ic reach and impact by providing quality services to
        tion’s 400 scholarship programs, which award 10,000    donors and bold, innovative community leadership. It
        scholarships a year.  He also launched the UNCF        is a top-20 community foundation among 750 and is
        Institute for Capacity Building, which helps UNCF’s    Georgia’s second largest foundation.
        member HBCUs become stronger, more effective and         Before his current role with the Community Foun-
        more self-sustaining.                                  dation of Greater Atlanta, Fernandez was Senior Vice
          Under Dr. Lomax’s leadership, UNCF has fought        President of Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. In
        for college readiness and education reform through     that position, he launched and led the community
        partnerships with reform-focused leaders and organi-   revitalization efforts in Atlanta’s historic Westside and
        zations and worked to further advance HBCUs with       also directed the foundation’s efforts in global giving,
        Congress, the administration and the Department of     youth development and social justice, among other
        Education.  He serves on the boards of the KIPP Foun-  responsibilities.
        dation, America’s Promise, Teach for America and the     A Florida native born to Cuban immigrants, Fernan-
        Studio Museum in Harlem.                               dez holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, magna
          Before joining UNCF, Dr. Lomax was president of      cum laude, from Harvard University. After three years
        Dillard University in New Orleans and a literature pro-  in New York with Salomon Smith Barney, he moved
        fessor at UNCF-member institutions Morehouse and       to Austin to pursue a Master of Arts degree at the LBJ
        Spelman Colleges.  He also founded the National Black  School of Public Affairs, University of Texas.
        Arts Festival, was a founding member of the Smithso-     In Atlanta, Fernandez is a member of the board
        nian Institution’s National Museum of African Amer-    of the Latino Community Fund and on the finance
        ican History and Culture (NMAAHC) and served as        committee of KIPP. He has been on Atlanta Magazine’s
        chairman of the Fulton County Commission in Atlan-     Atlanta 500 list the past two years. He is a Civil Soci-
        ta, the first African American elected to that post.   ety Fellow of the Aspen Institute and was a German
                                                               Marshall Fund Fellow in 2011. While in Austin he was
                                                               named Ernst & Young’s Social Entrepreneur of the
                                                               Year.
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