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From Birmingham Jail to College Graduate, Ph.D., and University President: Meet Exceptional Leader Award Winner for Higher Education, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President Emeritus of UMBC
GlobalMindED is proud to introduce the 2026 Exceptional Leader Award winners daily over the next two weeks. Read about these leaders and role models who stand out in their respective fields, inspiring their peers and the next generation that GlobalMindED serves. Meet them in Denver on June 10th at the awards dinner and hear them speak as part of 400+ speakers, 1,000+ attendees, and students at the GlobalMindED 2026 Conference, "Dimensions of our Democracy: Architecting the Next 250+ Years and Beyond," on June 11-12.
GlobalMindED is honored to recognize Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III, President Emeritus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), as the GlobalMindED Exceptional Leader Award winner for Higher Education. Hrabowski’s career reflects a lifelong commitment to expanding opportunity through education. He has helped shape institutions, influence national conversations on equity and excellence, and mentor generations of students and leaders across the country.
What is your personal story - how did you find your purpose and passion?
My story begins in Birmingham, Alabama, where I was born in 1950 as the only child of two dedicated educators who taught me that learning was both a responsibility and a joy. My mother, an English teacher who later became a pioneering “new math” and cross-disciplinary advocate, filled our home with books from around the world and showed me the power of viewing knowledge across cultures. My father, a math teacher who later worked in the steel mill, grounded me in discipline, problem-solving, and the belief that education opens doors.
Growing up in the segregated Deep South shaped both my character and my calling. At age 12, I marched in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Children’s Crusade, was arrested, and spent a week in jail–a pivotal experience that deepened my understanding of courage, justice, and community. I knew one of the young girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Those moments instilled a lifelong commitment to ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn and to thrive.
I graduated from high school and entered college (Hampton Institute) at 15 with a love for mathematics. While at Hampton, I studied for a year at the American University in Cairo, an experience that revealed how deeply American media and education were shaped by an American-centric lens. I earned my M.A. in mathematics and Ph.D. in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois by 24, often as the only Black student in the classroom. These experiences strengthened my resilience and confirmed my belief that talent exists everywhere, but opportunity does not.
At 75, in my fourth quarter of life, I am focused on teaching at Harvard, mentoring emerging leaders, and sharing the lessons I have learned so that the next generation can go even further.
What led you to the leadership role for which you are being recognized as a GlobalMindED Exceptional Leader?
My leadership has been shaped by extraordinary mentors, including global public health leader Bill Foege, whose courage and moral clarity influenced my own approaches to education and equity. His work, convincing major pharmaceutical companies to address global health challenges and advising figures like Bill Gates, showed me the power of aligning vision with bold action.
Early in my career, I taught math and statistics and created academic support programs to help students, including African Americans, succeed in science and engineering. After serving in leadership positions at several universities, I joined UMBC in 1987 and, in 1992, became its president, a role I held for 30 years.
At UMBC, I co-founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program with philanthropist Robert Meyerhoff. The program has become one of the country’s most celebrated models for producing underrepresented scientists, engineers, and physician-scientists. I discuss the success of that program in my Ted Talk, Four Pillars of College Success in Science. In addition, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute invested $1.5 billion to establish the Hrabowski Scholars Program to produce scientific leaders at universities around the country.
During my presidency, UMBC became a Research I university with national recognition for innovation and inclusive excellence. I chaired national commissions, including the White House Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans under President Barack Obama. I also received honors including the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award and the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal.
What has guided me through my career is the same belief I carried from Birmingham: that excellence and equity are inseparable, and that higher education must be an engine of opportunity.
As we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, what is your highest hope for our democracy?
My greatest hope is that we recognize our deep interconnectedness, within our nation and across the world. Our most urgent challenges do not stop at geographical borders. I believe in an America that refuses to turn away from the needs of others, whether across the street or across the globe. I want a democracy that ensures no child goes hungry, that expands opportunity from the bottom up, and that understands our future depends on lifting all people.
How can GlobalMindED inform and multiply your mission?
My motto is simple: a day without an ask is a day without sunshine. We each have the responsibility to ask for courageous engagement, to learn more deeply, and to act more boldly. GlobalMindED’s community can help multiply this mission by being informed ambassadors–people willing to illuminate issues, challenge inequities, and insist on meaningful change. I ask this community to be the light that guides us toward a more just, innovative, and opportunity-filled future for all.
You can celebrate Dr. Freeman Hrabowski and the other honorees at the Exceptional Leader Awards Dinner on June 10th in Denver and hear insights from him during the conference that follows. Read our newsletter each day and register for the conference by January 31 for the Early Bird rate!
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