This event was jointly hosted by the Silver Spring and Baltimore Chapters of Project Management Institute:

With Thanks to Our Sponsors: Read More

Spotlight on Our Speakers:

“Transformational Leadership” - Freeman Hrabowski - 7:30 PM:

Dr. Hrabowski is a powerful communicator and strategic thinker, who has been instrumental in the emergence of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) as a nationally-ranked honors university. Last fall (in 2008), Freeman was one of 24 honorees nationwide to be named to the prestigious U.S. News & World Report "America's Best Leaders 2008" list, along with other luminaries such as neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Children's Defense Fund President Marion Wright Edelman, jazz musician Herbie Hancock and the biologist and Nobel Laureate David Baltimore of the California Institute of Technology. The Best Leaders awards are the result of a collaborative effort between U.S. News and the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and their goal is to recognize the ability to set direction, achieve results and cultivate a culture of growth.

During his tenure as President of UMBC, Freeman has done all of that, and more, bringing about profound changes in the culture, character and competencies of the university. In the recently-released U.S. News & World Report America’s Best Colleges Guide for 2010, UMBC is ranked #1 among up-and-coming national universities, and #4 in undergraduate teaching at national universities --the highest-ranked public university in the category-- tied with Stanford just behind Dartmouth, Princeton and Yale. In November, a month after this presentation, Freeman was named by Time Magazine among the top ten college presidents in the United States. William Brody (former President of Johns Hopkins University, now President of the Salk Institute), has described Freeman's work as "extraordinary," adding that "people from all the major colleges and universities across the country are coming to UMBC to see what Freeman has done."

Although he comes to us from outside the project management mainstream, Dr. Hrabowski has much to share that relates directly to our profession: He's a powerful communicator, he knows how to manage risk, resources and competing stakeholder interests, and there are few who can match him in his ability to think strategically and put plans into action.

In this regard, the topic of his presentation, Transformational Leadership, could not be more apt. Freeman Hrabowski is a dynamic leader who inspires transformational change at the deepest and most fundamental levels. Now in his 18th year as UMBC's President, he has been instrumental in UMBC's emergence as a nationally-ranked honors university.  The campus now ranks 2nd nationally in NASA-funded university research grants and cooperative agreements.  It also ranks 1st in public policy Ph.D.s awarded and is listed by the National Science Foundation as one of the top three doctoral-granting universities in the country in the production of IT degrees at the undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. levels.  Theater students rank 2nd nationally in invitations to perform at the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival, and UMBC's arts and humanities faculty rank 13th among public universities in the country in prestigious scholarly awards per capita, including Fulbright, Guggenheim, and Mellon Awards.

Dr. Hrabowski's research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his M.A. (mathematics) one year later and his Ph.D. (higher education administration/statistics) at age 24. He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, and universities and school systems nationally. He also sits on numerous corporate and civic boards (e.g., American Association of Colleges & Universities, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Marguerite Casey Foundation, McCormick & Company, Inc., University of Maryland Medical System).

Examples of recent awards or honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, receiving the McGraw Prize in Education, being listed among Fast Company magazine’s first “Fast 50 Champions of Innovation” in business and technology, being named Marylander of the Year by the editors of the Baltimore Sun, and receiving the Council on Chemical Research’s first Diversity Award, the BETA Award (Baltimore’s Extraordinary Technology Advocate), NSF’s Educator Achievement Award, and the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. He also holds honorary degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina, Binghamton University, Brooklyn College (City University of New York), and Mercy College.

Dr. Hrabowski is co-author of two books published by Oxford University Press: Beating the Odds (1998), focusing on parenting and high-achieving African American males in science; and Overcoming the Odds (2002), on successful African American females in science. A child-leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. 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.

Among the comments received from those who attended the event: "As an attendee of the joint dinner session last night, let me extend a sincere thanks for the extraordinary vision, efforts, and success you achieved in pulling off a superb event... This was a great event, and fulfilled my already-high expectations... Overall, I believe it was one of the premier events of the year."

Freeman's closing words were a request to UMBC alumni: "One request, for all UMBC graduates, what I want you to do, tonight or tomorrow, is send me a note, and tell me your story. Doesn't have to be but a paragraph or two. Tell me your story, all the way back to middle [school] or high school, and what you're doing now. Best gift you can give me."

If you are a graduate of UMBC, please take a moment to visit the UMBC Alumni Search page and share your story with us. We, in turn, will share your story with Freeman, and keep you informed of outreach initiatives we hope to undedrtake with UMBC in collaboration with PMI Baltimore.