Henry M. Lancaster, Partner at Lancaster Craig & Associates, Director of the HBCU Green Fund, and Trustee of Lincoln University
Henry Lancaster is a Partner at Lancaster, Craig & Associates, a Director of the HBCU Green Fund, and a Trustee of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Northeastern University of School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts and Lincoln University.
His legislative and policy experience began in the 1980’s having worked as a legislative assistant to State Senator Joe P. Josephson in Juneau, AK and Special Staff Assistant to former Alaska Governor William Sheffield with liaison responsibilities to the departments of Administration, Labor and Transportation. While in Alaska, Henry also worked as a contract lobbyist on public lands and natural resource issues. He focused on a national education campaign within special publics about the significance of Alaskan petroleum exploration and development across the country.
Henry’s North Carolina legislative and policy experience include his having served in former Governor Jim Hunt’s administration in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He served as department legislative liaison, assistant Secretary for Natural Resources, and deputy Secretary. His main focus throughout his tenure with the department was on promoting environmental and natural resource policy and budgetary matters. He developed the Department’s strategy and community engagement efforts leading to legislative funding for a myriad of issues including the detoxification of the Warren County PCB landfill, department employee pay increases, facility improvements, equipment upgrades, statewide and national program planning and implementation and intergovernmental collaborations. Additionally, he spearheaded a strategy with county officials and a private waste-to-energy concern to relocate homeowners living within 500 feet of a municipal landfill in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
After leaving state government, Henry worked at the North Carolina League of Municipalities as their Director of Intergovernmental Relations. Henry was the League’s main point of contact with the North Carolina Congressional delegation, the National League of Cities and the International City/County Managers Association. Henry’s intergovernmental relations’ duties also included serving as League staff to the North Carolina City/County Managers Association, the Joint Regional Forum (Council of Governments) and the North Carolina Black Elected Municipal Officials organization.
Lancaster, Craig & Associates opened its doors in February of 2001. The firm’s client base includes local governments, trade associations, non-profits, public universities and private business concerns. His non-profit and association management work included founding and advocating for the United Minority Contractors Association of NC and the African American Real Estate Professionals of NC. He has served as a board member of the North Carolina Professional Lobbyists Association and Audubon NC. He has an abundance of experience in community organizing, political campaign engagement on a local and statewide basis. Henry is a former Chair for the North Carolina Arboretum Board of Directors and a former member of the Institute for the Environment/UNC Board of Visitors.
Henry has worked closely with the construction community DBE, W/MBE and state agencies in shaping business participation policy in North Carolina. Additionally, he has served on NCDOT’s disparity study review committee and presented on numerous occasions on issues related to increasing business enterprise opportunity in construction and procurement.
Henry continues to serve as moderator for the NC Environmental Justice Network Community Forum at their annual Fall gathering. His task has been to facilitate a dialogue between representatives of environmentally stressed communities and state and federal elected and environmental protection officials. He also presents on a regular basis to the NC Conservation Fund Resourceful Communities participants on legislative and policy issues related to environment and energy conservation and preservation.
Henry currently serves as the Region 1 Liaison for the Governor’s Hurricane Matthew Hurricane Recovery office. He is responsible for interacting with local and county government officials and citizens’ groups to assisting them in accessing state and federal recovery resources.
Additionally, he serves in an organizational and planning capacity with a group focused on uniting the alumni of North Carolina’s ten HBCU’s behind a resource enhancement strategy. The goal is to increase alumni giving to their respective institutions with an emphasis on strengthening their endowments and advocating for more reasonable financial aid options that lessens the debt load of students. This effort will be state and federal government oriented.
Henry lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife Donna. They have three adult sons.