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Meet Ruth Lomax

Senior Vice President and Executive Director for �鶹��Ƶ Columbus

Ruth-Marie Lomax has been a dedicated professional in the education and non-profit sector for over 20 years. She began her career in early childhood education and worked with programs like Ready, Set Grow and the Teen Parent Connection. These programs helped her recognize and understand the inequities and barriers many families in the community face. In 2010, Lomax joined the United Way of Central Ohio’s Columbus Kids initiative, which was the first of its kind in the nation. As the second team member, she helped launch the early childhood project that identified children in the Columbus City School district aged 2.5 to 5 who were at risk of developing learning delays. The Columbus Kids initiative became an effective predictor of academic readiness, and Lomax expanded it throughout all Columbus and Southwest City Schools as Columbus Kids Community Engagement Director. Lomax got an opportunity to pivot from direct service to development by joining the United Way’s Resource Development department. Here, she became a Senior Relationship Manager in Key Club, where she managed a portfolio of over a million dollars annually, from the African American Philanthropic community.

This experience provided Lomax with the necessary skills to effectively help donors in philanthropy and engage stakeholders in United Way’s mission to “Fight Poverty.” After leaving the United Way of Central Ohio, Lomax joined �鶹��Ƶ Columbus, where she led the Development efforts securing the site’s private revenue budget of 1.3 million dollars for educational equity.

Currently, Lomax serves �鶹��Ƶ Headquarters as the Senior Director of Site Stakeholder Engagement. In this role, she has the privilege to facilitate a framework of donor engagement programs to support �鶹��Ƶ site-based revenue. She conducts market coaching, training, pipeline management and fundraising strategy nationally. Additionally, she is responsible for cultivating, stewarding and managing corporate relationships nationally across 29 �鶹��Ƶ sites. And since February 2025 she has been serving as the Interim Executive Director at �鶹��Ƶ Columbus.

Ruth-Marie Lomax resides in Columbus’ Easton area with her husband Dr. Mark Lomax, II, and has two beautiful daughters Amirah Joy and Lailah Grace. She is a graduate of African American Leadership Academy Cohort 14, Fundraising Leadership Academy. She is also a founding member of The Wexner Shumate African American Council at the Wexner Center for the Arts, member of the Friends of the Drexel Board, Vice President of the Parent Association at Columbus School for Girls and member of the African American Community Fund Committee with Foundation of Appalachian Ohio.