Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has been named the 2013 Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professor. A STEM expert and advocate whose success promoting science and technology education was featured on 60 Minutes, Hrabowski has garnered national acclaim for transforming his mid-sized commuter school into one of the country’s top producers of African American Ph.D.s in science and engineering.
His appearance at MSU Denver is in keeping with the University's emphasis on STEM subjects and track record for being the number one institution in the state for serving STEM students of color. Hrabowski will be on campus Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. He will speak in the Tivoli’s Multicultural Lounge 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 the Shorter Community A.M.E. Church, 3100 Richard Allen Ct., from 6 to 9 p.m. All MSU Denver community members are invited to attend the Noel events.
Born in Birmingham, Ala., Hrabowski participated in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Children’s March in 1963 and was jailed for five days. He was an academic prodigy, attending college at 15 and earning his Ph.D. at 24 in higher education administration and statistics.
In 1988, Hrabowski, working with billionaire philanthropist Robert Meyerhoff, developed the Meyerhoff Scholarship, which initially targeted high-achieving African American males—and has since expanded to all students—interested in STEM studies, research and advanced degrees. Combining a no-nonsense educational approach along with support and hands-on experiences, the Meyerhoff Scholarship has become a national model for graduating students in the critical STEM fields.
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 lauded as 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).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.
Top of Page
