Freeman A. Hrabowski III
 |
Freeman A. Hrabowski III | |
|---|---|
 Hrabowski at the 2012 Time 100 | |
| Assumed office 1992 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 13, 1950 Birmingham, Alabama |
| Spouse | Jacqueline Coleman Hrabowski |
| Website | http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/president/ |
| [1] | |
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, (born August 13, 1950) in Birmingham, Alabama, is a prominent American educator. He has served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County since May 1992. In July 2012, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Hrabowski as Chair of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.[2]
Life and career
Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski is the great-great-grandson of Eaton Hrabowski, a Polish-American "slave master in rural Alabama" (thus the origin of his surname), and Rebecca nee McCord.[3][4] He is descended from Eaton Hrabowski and Rebecca McCord through Tom Hrabowski (who married Litha Reeves).[5] In a CBS interview, he stated, "And Freeman, I am the third, Freeman Hrabowski the third. And my grandfather was the first one born a free man as opposed to having to be freed." [6] Freeman (b. 1884) was actually the third born, the first and second born being Charles (later "Charles Rabusky", b. 1876) and Tom, Jr (b. 1881).[5]
Hrabowski "was jailed at the age of 12 for five days for participating in a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Ala. [in the 1960s], where Bull Connor spat in his face...."[7]
Hrabowski graduated at age 19 from Hampton Institute with high honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his M.A. in mathematics and four years later his Ph.D. (higher education administration/statistics) at age 24.[8]
Hrabowski is co-author of the books, Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males, published in 1998, and Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women, published in 2001.
He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and universities and school systems nationally.
Hrabowski is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, He also holds honorary degrees, including most recently from Harvard University,[9] Duke University, the University of Illinois, Gallaudet University, the Medical University of South Carolina, Binghamton University, and Goucher College.
Hrabowski is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and Sigma Pi Phi fraternity.
In 2008, U.S. News & World Report named Hrabowski one of America's Best Leaders.[10]
He was also on President Obama's 2008 Short list for Secretary of Education.[11]
In 2009, Time Magazine named Hrabowski one of the Top Ten College Presidents.[12]
In 2012, Time Magazine named Hrabowski one of the Top 100 most influential people in the world.[7]
He 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.
In 2008, he was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, which in 2009, 2010, and 2011 ranked UMBC the #1 “Up and Coming” university in the nation. In 2011, U.S. News also ranked UMBC 4th nationally for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” – tied with Yale. 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.
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), The Urban Institute, McCormick & Company, and the Baltimore Equitable Society. He served previously on the boards of Constellation Energy Group, Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, as well as 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 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.
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. He and UMBC were recently featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes, attracting national attention for the campus’s achievements involving innovation and inclusive excellence.
References
 | Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (December 2012) |
- ^ Reiter, Amy F. (January/February 2004). "Changing the Equations". Illinois Alumni Magazine. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Alumni Association. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, Yumanewsnow.com. Posted 26 July 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
- ^ "Hrabowski: An educator focused on math and science". CBS News.
- ^ http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/6373811/person/-1146783886[Freeman Hrabowski, Ancestry.com]
- ^ a b ibid. Cite error: The named reference "ancestry.com" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ CBS News interview
- ^ a b Rotherham, Andrew (April 18, 2012). "Freeman Hrabowski - 2012 TIME 100: The Most Influential People in the World". Time. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
- ^ Clark, Kim (November 19, 2008). "About UMBC, Freeman A. Hrabowski III". U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
- ^ "UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski Receives Honorary Degree from Harvard". UMBC Community News. May 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
- ^ Clark, Kim (November 19, 2008). "America's Best Leaders: Freeman Hrabowski, University of Maryland-Baltimore County". U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
- ^ Bowie, Liz (November 10, 2008). "The next U.S. secretary of education". Inside Ed. Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
- ^ Cruz, Gilbert (November 11, 2009). "Freeman Hrabowski - The Top Ten College Presidents". Time. Retrieved 2009-11-15.