Freeman Alphonsa Hrabowski III (born August 13,1950) is an American educator,advocate,and mathematician. In May 1992,he began his term as president of the University of Maryland,Baltimore County (UMBC),[2] one of the twelve public universities composing the University System of Maryland.[3] Hrabowski has been credited with transforming UMBC into an institution noted for research and innovation.[4] Under his leadership,UMBC was ranked the #1 Up and Coming University in the U.S. for six consecutive years (2009-2014) by the U.S. News &World Report magazine.[5] When that designation was retired,U.S. News &World Report began including UMBC on its annual Most Innovative National Universities list.[6]
His research and publications focus on science and math education,with a special emphasis on minority participation and performance in science,technology,engineering,and mathematics (STEM).[7][8] Hrabowski is the co-author of the books Beating the Odds:Raising Academically Successful African American Males (1998);Overcoming the Odds:Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women (2001);Holding Fast to Dreams:Empowering Youth from the Civil Rights Crusade to STEM (2015);The Empowered University:Shared Leadership,Culture Change,and Academic Success (2019);[9] and The Resilient University:How Purpose and Inclusion Drive Student Success (2024).[10]
Hrabowski chaired the National Academies committee that produced the report Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation:America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.[11] In 2012,President Barack Obama appointed Hrabowski to chair of the newly created President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.[12] Publications have named him one of America's best leaders,[13] one of the 100 most influential people in the world,[14] and one of America's 10 best college presidents.[15]
Hrabowski was born in segregated Birmingham,Alabama,the only child of his parents,both of whom were educators.[1] His mother was an English teacher who became a math teacher,and his father was a math teacher who went to work at a steel mill.
Frequently asked about the origin of his unusual surname,Hrabowski explains that he is the great-great-grandson of Eaton Hrabowski,who was enslaved and renamed for Polish-American slave owner Samuel Hrabowski.[17][18] In a CBS television interview,Hrabowski recounted that he is the third Freeman Hrabowski;his grandfather was the first Freeman Hrabowski born a free man,as opposed to having to be freed.[7]
When he was 12 years old,in 1963,Hrabowski saw his friends readying for the Children's Crusade march for civil rights. He convinced his parents to let him join in as a youth advocate,but soon into the march he was swept up in a mass arrest. Birmingham's notorious Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor spat in his face and arrested him.[19]
UMBC was a relatively young school in a Baltimore suburb when Hrabowski arrived in 1987 as vice provost,then executive vice president,and president in 1992.[20]
Over nearly three decades as president of UMBC,Hrabowski gained a high public profile.[18] Hrabowski emphasized STEM education,and co-founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program,aimed at promoting minority achievement in STEM fields.[18] Under his leadership,"more black students earn bachelor's degrees in science and technology from UMBC than from any other non-historically black university in Maryland,even College Park,which has three times as many students."[18] Hrabowski was an advisor to President Barack Obama on higher education policy,and was appointed by Obama to serve as chair of an advisory council on excellence in African-American education. He received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University in 2010.[18] Hrabowski retired from UMBC in 2022.[21]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
