Role of Higher Education in a Knowledge-Based Economy to be discussed Sept. 21
 

Norfolk, Va.— Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, will discuss the Role of Higher Education in a Knowledge-Based Economy at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21 at NSU’s L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance.

Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski graduated at age 19 from Hampton Institute with the highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, he received his master’s degree in mathematics and four years later a Ph.D. in higher education administration/statistics at age 24. 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.

Hrabowski is the co-author of Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds, two books that focus on parenting and high-achieving African-American males and females in science. Both books are used by universities, school systems, and community groups around the country.

His recent awards and honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, receiving the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education and the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. He was also named Marylander of the Year by the editors of The Baltimore Sun, and is listed among Fast Company magazine's first "Fast 50 Champions of Innovation" in business and technology. Additionally, Hrabowski holds numerous honorary degrees.