The Professorship
The Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorship was initiated in 1981 to foster multiculturalism, diversity and academic excellence at Metropolitan State University of Denver. The professorship brings renowned scholars and artists of distinction to MSU Denver to conduct classes, seminars, performances and lectures for students, faculty and the larger Denver community.
Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Professors have included such luminaries as Princeton Professor Cornel West, pianist Billy Taylor, author Iyanla Vanzant, former president of Spellman College Johnetta Cole, jazz singer Diane Reeves, the late actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis and executive editor of Ebony magazine Lerone Bennett Jr.
2013 Noel Distinguished Visiting Professor Freeman A. Hrabowski III, Ph.D.
Dr. Freeman Hrabowski is the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and is considered a national expert in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, or STEM, with an emphasis on minority participation. He is lauded for having transformed UMBC, a mid-sized commuter school, into one of the country’s top producers of African American Ph.D.s in science and engineering.
National accolades
Hrabowski recently was named by President Barack Obama to head the newly created President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. In 2008, he was acclaimed as one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked UMBC the nation’s No. 1 “Up and Coming” university the past four years (2009-12).
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 one of the nation’s highest awards among higher education leaders.
Schedule of campus and community events
Hrabowski will be at MSU Denver for one day only, Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. He will speak in the Tivoli Student Union Multicultural Lounge on the Auraria Campus at the following times: 9:30-10:45 a.m., 12:30-1:45 p.m. and 3:30-4:45 p.m.
He will also appear at the Noel Community Event at Shorter Community AME Church, 3100 Richard Allen Ct. from 6- 8 p.m. The Hope for the Future Noel Award winners will be honored that evening as well.
All events are free and open to the public.
Hope for the Future Noel Award
The Rachel B. Noel Professorship honors Colorado citizens who have made a difference in the community. The recipients of the 2013 award are two local educators:
Patty Quinones, Principal, Skyline High School, St. Vrain School District
Quinones became principal of Skyline High School in 2008 and immediately began transforming the school into a practical center of education in science and the arts. Since coming to Skyline, she has launched two academies to provide enriched opportunities in STEM subjects and the VPA (visual and performing arts) areas. Quinones is on the leadership team of the Colorado Collaborative for STEM, part of the National Girls Collaborate Project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. St. Vrain school district recently received a $16.59 million Race to the Top grant from the U.S. Department of Education. A portion of that money will go to Skyline High School to support their innovations in STEM education.
Kristen Waters, Ph.D., Principal, South High School, Denver Public Schools
In 2005, Waters became principal of Bruce Randolph School, one of Colorado’s worst performing schools. By 2010, the school had demonstrated tremendous academic gains and graduated 97 percent of its senior class. A veteran educator, Waters returned to frontline education as principal of Denver South High School in 2011 after having served in the Denver Public Schools as an instructional superintendent, overseeing half of Denver’s 24 high schools, and as assistant to the superintendent for innovation and reform, managing new school and policy development. In his January 2011 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama mentioned Waters as a leader who is making a difference in public education. She received the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting System Be More Award in 2010, and in 2008, The Denver Post named her as a Coloradan Who Made a Difference.
