President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III as chair of the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Dr. Hrabowski is a College of Education at Illinois alumnus and the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is nationally renowned for educating minority students in the sciences.

“The nation’s future will depend heavily on the extent to which we educate all of our nation’s children. This commission will work to ensure that increasing numbers of African Americans excel academically,” Hrabowski said.

Hrabowski earned the following degrees from the University of Illinois: a master's degree in Mathematics in 1971, a Ph.D. in Education in 1975, and an Honorary Degree in 2004. In 2008, he received the College of Education's Distinguished Alumni Award.

He was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2012 by Time Magazine and one of the seven “Top American Leaders” in 2011 by The Washington Post and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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