The Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber (BWCC) established the Visionary Leadership Award in 2012 and named UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, its inaugural recipient. Future annual awards will be named in his honor.
Hrabowski has served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), since 1992. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He chaired the National Academies committee that recently produced the report, “Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.”
In 2008, he was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, which in 2009, 2010 and 2011 ranked UMBC the No. 1 “Up and Coming” university in the nation.
In 2011, U.S. News also ranked UMBC fourth nationally for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” – tied with Yale and immediately before Brown and Stanford. In 2009, Time magazine named him one of America’s Ten Best College Presidents, and in 2012, Time included him on its list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
In 2011, Hrabowski received both the TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence and the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award, recognized by many as the nation’s highest awards among higher education leaders.
Also in 2011, he was named one of seven Top American Leaders by the Washington Post and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership.
Hrabowski serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies, and universities and school systems nationally. He also serves on the boards of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, France-Merrick Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation (chair) and The Urban Institute. He sits on the boards of Constellation Energy Group, McCormick & Company and the Baltimore Equitable Society. He is a past member of the board of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Maryland Humanities Council (member and chair).
The BWCC award seeks to recognize outstanding, visionary leadership within the Baltimore Washington Corridor, and the recipient may or may not be a member of the BWCC. The recipient’s contributions will have had a broad impact on the region and are inclusive of, but not limited to, the arenas of: government, education, finance, economics, procurement, small business, minority business, management, tourism, social services and community services. The recipient is presented with a leaded crystal memento, and the BWCC offices will maintain a photo display of those honored.
