Creating an Empowered University: A Conversation with Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III

In collaboration with the Tommy Thompson Center on Public Leadership, UW–Whitewater is honored to welcome Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III, former President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to campus for a conversation about higher education and how university communities support academic success by cultivating an empowering institutional culture. Dr. Hrabowski is considered one of the nation’s most distinguished leaders in higher education. In 2012 he was selected by President Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. He has been named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

In 2022, Dr. Hrabowski was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and he was also named the inaugural ACE Centennial Fellow, to be served upon his retirement from UMBC. In addition, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) launched the Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program ($1.5 billion) to help build a scientific workforce that more fully reflects our increasingly diverse country. In October 2022, he was named the inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture Speaker by Harvard University. This April, The NAS Public Welfare Medal, the Academy’s most prestigious award, will be presented to him for his extraordinary use of science for the public good.