CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Freeman Hrabowski, the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a national leader in academic innovation and inclusive excellence, will join University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert J. Jones for the first installment of the “A Great Conversation” series. The event will be livestreamed Monday, Oct. 12 at go.illinois.edu/AGreatConversation from 11 a.m. to noon CDT.
Jones is planning a series of public conversations with prominent figures across disciplines to discuss critical societal issues and solutions. All events in the series will be free and open to the public.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County President Freeman Hrabowski – an Illinois alumnus – was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2012.
Hrabowski will present “The Empowered University: Shared Leadership in Challenging Times,” an examination of “how university communities can support academic success by cultivating an empowering institutional culture.” Hrabowski and Jones will relate their own educational experiences as scholars and higher education leaders, the state of higher education today, increasing access to education and the responsibility for training the next generation of world leaders.
A virtual book-signing will accompany the live event. Signed copies of Hrabowski’s book, “The Empowered University: Shared Leadership, Culture Change, and Academic Success,” co-written with Peter Henderson and Philip Rous, are available through the UMBC Bookstore. Proceeds from event book sales will help provide scholarships for UMBC students.
Hrabowski earned an M.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on underrepresented minority participation and performance. He chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced the 2011 report “Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.” In 2012, he was named by President Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
Hrabowski was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2012. He has received the American Council on Education’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the University of California, Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Award, and the University of California, San Francisco’s UCSF Medal. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UMBC among the nation’s leading institutions for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” and “Most Innovative Schools.”
A captioned, archived version of the conversation will be available after the event.
Editor’s note: For more information, contact Robin Kaler, associate chancellor for public affairs, 217-333-5010, publicaffairs@illinois.edu
