UNCF Public Policy and Government Affairs Team

Public Policy and Government Affairs is a strategic priority for UNCF.  Our government affairs team has more than 25 years of Capitol Hill and advocacy experience that it puts to good use–informing and influencing critical policy discussions taking place at the national level.

Lodriguez Murray

Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Government Affairs

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Lodriguez Murray joined UNCF in 2017 as vice president of public policy and government affairs. In this role, he develops and drives strategies to influence and mobilize action in the U.S. Congress and executive branch on the public policy priorities of UNCF, its 37 member HBCUs and the 50,000 students they serve. Murray is also a member of the advisory board of the HBCU Capital Finance Program and the Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking on borrower defense. He was made Senior Vice President in 2019.

Murray has extensive government affairs experience representing academic centers, patient rights organizations and private companies. He began his career in Washington as a special assistant for the late Rep. Charles (Charlie) W. Norwood, Jr. (GA). It was in Norwood’s office that he learned the congressional authorization and appropriations processes as well as the importance of customer/constituent services.

Upon leaving Norwood’s office, Murray spent more than a decade working in government affairs as a lobbyist and senior vice president at Washington’s top firm specializing in healthcare and disparities. He has represented the interests of Meharry Medical College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, Howard University Health Sciences Institutions, Tuskegee University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, National AHEC Organization, Nation Council for Diversity in the Health Professions (NCDHP), Zimmer Inc.’s Movement is Life, American Liver Foundation and OraSure Technologies, Inc. Murray additionally served as the executive director of the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools, the group of historically black graduate schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and veterinary medicine.

Under Murray’s leadership, the firm’s landmark achievements include the elevation of the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities to the level of an Institute at the National Institutes of Health, safeguards in federal legislation protecting programs for historically black health schools and funding on an annual basis for programs to assist with the education of minority health professions students.

A native of Augusta, GA, Murray received a UNCF scholarship while attending Morehouse College, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. Recognitions for Murray include the Congressional Black Caucus “40 Under 40” award in healthcare and a special award of recognition from Xavier University’s Health Disparities Conference. In 2021, Lodriguez received a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from UNCF-member Talladega College.