" It creates long lasting sustainability. And what I mean by that is it leveraged those dollars to build on what we were already doing, and it helps us create more capacity. We have exponentially grown in a lot of different areas that we would not have been able to get into without those resources.” - DR. HARRY L. WILLIAMS
report loving their time at their institutions and valuing the education they received. The Payne Center’s ambitions extend well beyond alumni outcomes data. In a landmark new report, “Stewarding the Legacy: A National Strategy for Building Resilient HBCU Presidential Leadership,” the center has produced what researchers describe as the most comprehensive study of HBCU presidential leadership in nearly 30 years. As encouraging as TMCF’s recent trajectory has been, Williams is clear that the need has not diminished, it has evolved. The organization’s most
urgent new priority is preparing HBCU campuses for the age of artificial intelligence. Williams marks his eighth year at TMCF this year, a tenure that has included a global pandemic, landmark philanthropic gifts, an explosion of corporate interest in HBCU partnerships, and now the uncertain terrain of federal policy shifts and AI disruption. “It’s a very exciting time, very engaging time,” he says. “But sustainability has been our key. We have a bold and audacious goal of making sure that we impact all 300,000 students in our network.”
sponsored, for career and professional development experiences in major cities across the country. One of the more understated dimensions of TMCF’s expansion is its growing investment in research. TMCF’s research arm, led by Dr. M.C. Brown II, has just completed what may be the largest alumni survey in HBCU history: a study of 500,000 HBCU graduates conducted in partnership with Gallup and the HBCU Transformation Project. The early findings confirm what HBCU advocates have long argued anecdotally: the overwhelming majority of graduates
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