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Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, has served as President of UMBC (The University of Maryland,
Baltimore County) since 1992. His research and publications focus on science and math
education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He chaired
the National Academies’ committee that produced the recent report, Expanding Underrepresented
Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.
He also was recently named by President Obama to chair the newly created President’s
Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
In 2008, he was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, which
ranked UMBC the nation’s #1 “Up and Coming” university the past four years (2009-12).
During this period, U.S. News also consistently ranked UMBC among the nation’s leading
institutions for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” – tied in 2012 with Duke, Cal-Berkeley,
the University of Chicago, and Notre Dame. TIME magazine named him one of America’s
10 Best College Presidents in 2009, and one of the “100 Most Influential People in
the World” in 2012. In 2011, he received both the TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh
Award for Leadership Excellence and the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic
Leadership Award, recognized by many as the nation’s highest awards among higher education
leaders. Also in 2011, he was named one of seven Top American Leaders by The Washington
Post and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. In 2012, he received
the Heinz Award for his contributions to improving the “Human Condition” and was among
the inaugural inductees into the U.S. News & World Report STEM Solutions Leadership
Hall of Fame.
He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes
of Health, the National Academies, and universities and school systems nationally.
He also serves on the boards of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, France-Merrick Foundation,
Marguerite Casey Foundation (Chair), T. Rowe Price Group, The Urban Institute, McCormick
& Company, and the Baltimore Equitable Society. He served previously on the boards
of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Maryland Humanities
Council (member and Chair).
Examples of other honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
and the American Philosophical Society; receiving the prestigious McGraw Prize in
Education, the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and
Engineering Mentoring, the Columbia University Teachers College Medal for Distinguished
Service, and the GE African American Forum ICON Lifetime Achievement Award; being
named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Black Engineer
of the Year (BEYA) by the BEYA STEM Global Competitiveness Conference, Educator of
the Year by the World Affairs Council of Washington, DC, and Marylander of the Year
by the editors of the Baltimore Sun; and being listed among Fast Company magazine’s
first Fast 50 Champions of Innovation in business and technology, and receiving the
Technology Council of Maryland’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He also holds honorary
degrees from more than 20 institutions – from Harvard, Princeton, and Duke to the
University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, Haverford
College, and Harvey Mudd College.
With philanthropist Robert Meyerhoff, he co-founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program
in 1988. The program is open to all high-achieving students committed to pursuing
advanced degrees and research careers in science and engineering, and advancing underrepresented
minorities in these fields. The program is recognized as a national model, and based
on program outcomes, Hrabowski has authored numerous articles and co-authored two
books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds (Oxford University Press), focusing
on parenting and high-achieving African American males and females in science. He
and UMBC were recently featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes, attracting national attention
for the campus’s achievements involving innovation and inclusive excellence.
A child-leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Hrabowski was prominently featured in
Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary, Four Little Girls, on the racially motivated bombing
in 1963 of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute
with highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
he received his M.A. (mathematics) and four years later his Ph.D. (higher education
administration/statistics) at age 24.
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, has served as President of UMBC (The University of Maryland,
Baltimore County) since 1992. His research and publications focus on science and math
education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He chaired
the National Academies’ committee that produced the recent report, Expanding Underrepresented
Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.
He also was recently named by President Obama to chair the newly created President’s
Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
In 2008, he was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, which
ranked UMBC the nation’s #1 “Up and Coming” university the past four years (2009-12).
During this period, U.S. News also consistently ranked UMBC among the nation’s leading
institutions for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” – tied in 2012 with Duke, Cal-Berkeley,
the University of Chicago, and Notre Dame. TIME magazine named him one of America’s
10 Best College Presidents in 2009, and one of the “100 Most Influential People in
the World” in 2012. In 2011, he received both the TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh
Award for Leadership Excellence and the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic
Leadership Award, recognized by many as the nation’s highest awards among higher education
leaders. Also in 2011, he was named one of seven Top American Leaders by The Washington
Post and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. In 2012, he received
the Heinz Award for his contributions to improving the “Human Condition” and was among
the inaugural inductees into the U.S. News & World Report STEM Solutions Leadership
Hall of Fame.
He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes
of Health, the National Academies, and universities and school systems nationally.
He also serves on the boards of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, France-Merrick Foundation,
Marguerite Casey Foundation (Chair), T. Rowe Price Group, The Urban Institute, McCormick
& Company, and the Baltimore Equitable Society. He served previously on the boards
of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Maryland Humanities
Council (member and Chair).
Examples of other honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
and the American Philosophical Society; receiving the prestigious McGraw Prize in
Education, the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and
Engineering Mentoring, the Columbia University Teachers College Medal for Distinguished
Service, and the GE African American Forum ICON Lifetime Achievement Award; being
named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Black Engineer
of the Year (BEYA) by the BEYA STEM Global Competitiveness Conference, Educator of
the Year by the World Affairs Council of Washington, DC, and Marylander of the Year
by the editors of the Baltimore Sun; and being listed among Fast Company magazine’s
first Fast 50 Champions of Innovation in business and technology, and receiving the
Technology Council of Maryland’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He also holds honorary
degrees from more than 20 institutions – from Harvard, Princeton, and Duke to the
University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, Haverford
College, and Harvey Mudd College.
With philanthropist Robert Meyerhoff, he co-founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program
in 1988. The program is open to all high-achieving students committed to pursuing
advanced degrees and research careers in science and engineering, and advancing underrepresented
minorities in these fields. The program is recognized as a national model, and based
on program outcomes, Hrabowski has authored numerous articles and co-authored two
books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds (Oxford University Press), focusing
on parenting and high-achieving African American males and females in science. He
and UMBC were recently featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes, attracting national attention
for the campus’s achievements involving innovation and inclusive excellence.
A child-leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Hrabowski was prominently featured in
Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary, Four Little Girls, on the racially motivated bombing
in 1963 of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute
with highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
he received his M.A. (mathematics) and four years later his Ph.D. (higher education
administration/statistics) at age 24.
