Freeman Hrabowski, Ph.D. ’75 EPOL, the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) 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. 

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 of training the next generation of world leaders.

Accompanying the live event will be a virtual book-signing. Signed copies of Hrabowski’s book, “The Empowered University: Shared Leadership, Culture Change, and Academic Success,” co-authored with Peter Henderson and Philip Rous, are available through the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Bookstore website here. 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 also 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."

The event will be livestreamed Monday, Oct. 12 at go.illinois.edu/AGreatConversation from 11 a.m. to noon CDT.