Freeman Hrabowski, the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a national leader in academic innovation and inclusive excellence, joined University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert J. Jones for the first installment of the “A Great Conversation” series on Monday, Oct. 12.

Dr. Hrabowski discusses how university communities can support academic success by cultivating an empowering institutional culture, his own educational experiences as a scholar and higher education leader, the state of higher education today, increasing access to education and the responsibility for training the next generation of world leaders. You can find a list of topics, along with the corresponding point in the video where they were discussed, below.

• "The Empowered University" (8:05)
• The origins of Dr. Hrawboski's name (27:11)
• Dr. Hrawboski's tenure at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (29:47)
• Culture change at universities (35:23)
• Increasing diversity at universities (42:46)
• Harnessing the power of sports (52:08)
• The national climate (53:23)

Jones is planning a series of public conversations with prominent figures across disciplines to discuss critical societal issues and solutions. Hrabowski earned an M.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on underrepresented minority participation and performance. He chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced the 2011 report “Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.” In 2012, he was named by President Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

Hrabowski was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2012. He has received the American Council on Education’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the University of California, Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Award, and the University of California, San Francisco’s UCSF Medal. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UMBC among the nation's leading institutions for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” and “Most Innovative Schools.”