Keeping a Watchful Eye: Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III
 Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, has served as President of UMBC (The University of Maryland, Baltimore County) since May, 1992. He joined the University in 1987, serving first as Vice Provost, then as Executive Vice President.
The UMBC campus, with 10,000 students, 425 full-time faculty, an operating budget of $193 million, and over $50 million in external contracts and grants for research and training, combines excellence in undergraduate teaching with research and graduate education in the sciences, engineering, and public policy. UMBC also actively promotes economic development in the Baltimore region through its research, technology commercialization, and strong connections with the corporate community.
Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics, and he received his M.A. (mathematics) and the Ph.D. (higher education administration/ statistics) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at age 24.
Dr. Hrabowski serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Academy of Sciences (where he is a member of the Academy's Council of Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable), the U.S. Department of Education, and universities and school systems nationally.
He is a member of numerous boards, including the American Council on Education, the Baltimore Community Foundation, the Baltimore Equitable Society, Center Stage, the Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America, Constellation Energy Group, the Education Commission of the States, the Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies, McCormick & Company, Inc., the Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, the Merrick & France Foundations, the Maryland High-Technology Council, and the University of Maryland Medical System.
He also participated in both the Greater Baltimore Committee's Leadership Program and Leadership Maryland. Dr. Hrabowski has served on the Maryland Humanities Council as both a member (1987-92) and Chair (1991-92), the Governor's Commission on State Taxes & Tax Structure (Linowes Commission), the Governor's Maryland Economic Growth Task Force, and as Co-Chair of the Governor's Transition Policy Group on Education. Examples of recent awards include:
• The BETA Award (Baltimore's Extraordinary Technology Advocate)
• The Henry A. Rosenberg, Sr. Distinguished Citizen Award (Boy Scouts of America, Baltimore Council)
• The Andrew White Medal (Loyola College of Maryland)
• The Hatikvah Award (The Jewish National Fund), The Educator Achievement Award (NSF)
• The Outstanding Science Educator (Eli Lilly & Company)
• The Golden Torch Academic Visionary Award (National Society of Black Engineers)
• The U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (awarded to Dr. Hrabowski's university in recognition of the nationally-acclaimed, multi-million dollar Meyerhoff Scholars Program for gifted African American undergraduates in science and engineering).
Dr. Hrabowski also was instrumental in the formation of the Governor's Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Technology. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with a special emphasis on issues involving minority participation.
 He is co-author of the book, Beating the Odds, focusing on parenting and high-achieving African American males in science, published by Oxford University Press in 1998; he is co-authoring a second book, Overcoming the Odds, on successful African American females in science, to be published by Oxford University Press in 2000.
|
