UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski to Deliver Graduation Address to University of Maryland School of Medicine's 209th Graduating Class

Dr. Hrabowski is One of the Nation’s Most Prominent Leaders in Advancing Education in Science and Math.

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, MA, PhD, President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), will deliver the keynote address for this year’s graduating class. The UMSOM graduation ceremony will take place at 10 am on May 17, 2018 at the Hippodrome Theatre.

Dr. Hrabowski, a prominent educator, advocate and mathematician, is regarded as one of the nation’s most innovative and visionary academic leaders.  He has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME, and one of America’s Best leaders by U.S. News & World Report. In 2012, President Barack Obama appointed Dr. Hrabowski to Chair the newly created President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

In March of this year, UMBC was in the national spotlight after it defeated the University of Virginia in the largest upset in the history of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament. News reports in the New York Times and The Atlantic and other prominent publications focused, not on basketball, but on Dr. Hrabowski’s leadership and the university’s tremendous success story.

Joining UMBC as president in May,1992, he set a course to transform what was largely a little-known commuter university into a major research institution now recognized as one of the most innovative in the country. He continues to lead an administration that has built a first-rate campus for research and education, preparing students from every background for success – particularly in the Science/Technology/Engineering/Math (STEM) disciplines.  UMBC has been ranked the #1 Up and coming University in the U.S. for six consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report.

“We are honored to have such a visionary leader as Dr. Hrabowski to speak to our graduating class of 2018.  He represents the spirit and fortitude that we want to instill in our graduates as they advance in their careers,”said Dean Reece, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.  “His unwavering commitment to diversity and inclusion, especially in the STEM disciplines, is particularly relevant, and serves as an inspiration to our students, families, faculty and special guests who will be in attendance.”

Under Dr. Hrabowski’s leadership, UMBC has become renown for its emphasis on students achieving advanced degrees, with a specific focus on preparing them for MD and PhD programs.  According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), UMBC produces more minority MD and PhD degree earners than any other college in the U.S. Since 2000, more than 10 percent of the minority men and women who have earned MD and PhD’s from institutions across the country were UMBC alumni. UMBC points to its commitment to research and several of its undergraduate programs that have supported minority advanced degree seekers. The school's Meyerhoff Scholars Program, co-founded by Dr. Hrabowski in 1988, has emerged as a national model for increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Dr. Hrabowski has been an award-winning author, speaker and consultant throughout his career.  He chaired the prestigious National Academies’ committee that produced the 2011 report, Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.  Dr. Hrabowski has received the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Academic Leadership Award, one of the highest honors given to an educator.

He was 19 years old when he graduated from Hampton Institute with high honors in mathematics.  He then received his MA Degree in mathematics and his PhD in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The UMSOM graduating Class of 2018 has 146 members, with 39 percent of the class specializing in either pediatrics, internal medicine or family medicine—fields that have some of the greatest need for new practitioners. In March,142 UMSOM students matched at 69 different hospitals for residency program in 30 states. Thirty-nine members of the Class of 2018 will stay in the state of Maryland for their residency training.

Previous graduation speakers at UMSOM include award-winning New York Times Journalist Gina Kolata; Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana Wen, Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, Former Institute of Medicine President Harvey Fineberg; Pharmacologist and Academic Leader Philip Needleman, PhD; and Neil Baer, Executive Producer of the television show ER.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Commemorating its 210^th Anniversary, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 43 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs; and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished recipient of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research.  With an operating budget of more than $1 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically-based care for more than 1.2 million patients each year. The School has over 2,500 students, residents, and fellows, and nearly $450 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total workforce of nearly 7,000 individuals. The combined School and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of nearly $6 billion and an economic impact in excess of $15 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine faculty, which ranks as the 8^th-highest public medical school in research productivity, is an innovator in translational medicine, with 600 active patents and 24 start-up companies. The School works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu/