Freeman Hrabowski

Hrabowski, a highly regarded educator and champion for civil rights, served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from 1992 to 2022, where he is credited with elevating the institution’s reputation for innovation and expanding student diversity. He has been hailed as one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, one of America’s 10 Best College Presidents and one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, both by Time.

Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski’s experience as a civil rights advocate dates back to his childhood when he participated in the Children's Crusade in 1963 at age 12. During an event that altered the course of history, he was one of the many children swept up in a mass arrest at the march. The violent treatment of children during a peaceful protest triggered outrage worldwide.

The son of two educators, Hrabowski graduated from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics and received his master’s degree in mathematics and doctoral degree in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A lifelong scholar, his research focuses on science and math education, with a special emphasis on minority participation and performance in STEM education. He has coauthored five books, chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced the 2011 report “Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads,” and was appointed in 2012 by President Barack Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

In 2022, Hrabowski was named the inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture Speaker by Harvard and the inaugural ACE Centennial Fellow, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute also launched a $1.5 billion Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program to help build a scientific workforce that more fully reflects our increasingly diverse country. In April 2023, the National Academy of Sciences awarded Hrabowski the Public Welfare Medal, the academy’s most prestigious recognition, and inducted him as a member for his extraordinary use of science for the public good.

He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies and to universities and school systems nationally. He has also served on the boards of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, France-Merrick Foundation, T. Rowe Price Group, McCormick & Company and the Baltimore Equitable Society.