Mark Lomax

Community Research and Grants Management Officer

The Columbus Foundation

As Community Research and Grants Management Officer, Mark is responsible for developing and managing grantmaking strategies to reduce disparities and create access to opportunities for at-risk youth, ages 16 to 26. He also collaborates with Foundation staff in identifying effective social investments on behalf of Foundation donors, and developing and sharing community knowledge on current needs in the nonprofit sector.

Mark has spent the better part of the past decade using the arts as a means of engaging opportunity youth in central Ohio at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus (BGCC), where he created targeted programming to prepare at-risk youth for college, career, and adulthood. He also served as BGCC’s R.I.S.E. Club director, working with youth in Weinland Park, and the organization’s senior director ofteen programming.

An award-winning composer, Mark, who holds a Doctor of Music Arts degree, is an acclaimed recording artist, renowned jazz drummer, and educator. He is a highly sought after lecturer specializing in the socio-political, and spiritual aspects of African-American art, music, race, and using the arts to build community. Mark received his doctor’s, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees from The Ohio State University.