Newswise — Martha D. Lamkin, president and chief executive officer of Lumina Foundation for Education, was the Commencement speaker for the USI Commencement on May 6, 2006, when 1,675 degree candidates of the Class of 2006 earned degrees.
Lamkin has directed the Lumina Foundation since it was created in 2000. The Foundation serves an educational mission to expand access to education beyond high school, particularly for populations traditionally underserved by higher education. It is the largest foundation focused exclusively on educational access nationwide.
During the mid 1990s, as executive vice president of Corporate Advancement for USA Group, Inc., Lamkin was instrumental in developing the concept of the foundation while USA Group, Inc., the largest nonprofit administrator of student loans, planned to sell most of its operating assets valued at $770 million.
The Lumina Foundation uses assets to fund grants for national research, innovative programs, and broad communications efforts around issues that are important to higher education access, with a focus on issues related to financial access, student success in completing educational goals beyond high school, and opportunities for underserved students.
During her 30-year career, she has served as president of the Cummins Engine Company Foundation in Columbus, Indiana, and as executive director of corporate responsibility and government affairs at Cummins. She also was manager for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Indiana office and was an attorney in Indianapolis with the firm of Lowe, Gray, Steele and Hoffman.
Lamkin has leadership experience in both higher education and philanthropy and was a trustee of the Indianapolis Foundation, the nation's second oldest and Indiana's largest community foundation. She is co-founder and former chair of the Central Indiana Community Foundation and a member of the Board of Visitors at the Indiana University School of Law.
As a community leader, she has been involved with a wide range of civic, government, arts, and social service organizations. In 2005 she was elected to the board of directors of the Council on Foundations and is a member of its Public Policy Committee and Advisory Committee for Executive Programs.
She graduated summa cum laude from California Baptist University, received her master's degree in English and American Literature from Vanderbilt University, and earned her law degree from Indiana University.
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