This article is Part One of a three-part leadership series featuring UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby in conversation with Tyrone “Doc T” Taborn. The series explores legacy, inclusive excellence, and the future of higher education through the lens of values-driven leadership.
When Dr. Valerie Sheares Ashby speaks about excellence, she does not speak in abstractions. She speaks with conviction, clarity, and lived experience—grounded in a belief that excellence and inclusion are not competing ideas, but inseparable truths.
That belief did not originate with her presidency. At UMBC, it has a name.
Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III.
This first installment of a three-part series begins not with transition, but with continuity—because no conversation about UMBC’s present or future can begin without reckoning with the legacy of the man who transformed the institution and redefined what excellence looks like in American higher education.
Freeman Hrabowski: The Architect of Modern UMBC
To lead UMBC is to inherit one of the most respected and consequential presidencies in modern higher education. Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III did not merely grow a university—he changed the national narrative about who belongs in STEM, who succeeds in research, and what public universities owe the students they serve.
President Ashby does not speak of that legacy lightly.
“Freeman Hrabowski didn’t just lead UMBC,” she says. “He changed lives at scale. He proved—without question—that talent is universal and opportunity must be intentional.”
Under Hrabowski’s leadership, UMBC rose into the top tier of American research institutions while simultaneously becoming a national model for student success, particularly for students from underrepresented and underestimated communities.
“There are presidents who manage institutions,” Ashby reflects, “and then there are presidents who move the country. Freeman is the latter.”
What distinguished Hrabowski was not rhetoric, but execution. Programs like the Meyerhoff Scholars Program did more than increase participation in STEM—they demonstrated what happens when excellence is pursued without exclusion.
“What Freeman understood better than almost anyone,” Ashby notes, “is that brilliance shows up everywhere—but systems don’t always know how to recognize it. UMBC became a place that learned how.”
The Meyerhoff Legacy: Proof, Not Promise
Last week, UMBC celebrated the birthday of Robert Meyerhoff, whose vision—realized under Hrabowski’s leadership—became one of the most impactful STEM initiatives in the nation.
After earning a civil engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1944 and serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineers Corps, Meyerhoff established the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at UMBC in 1988. His goal was clear: increase the participation of promising and outstanding students in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Today, that vision is reflected in results. According to the program, more than 1,400 alumni are working in STEM fields across the United States, and more than 300 graduates are currently pursuing graduate and professional degrees in STEM disciplines.
For Ashby, the Meyerhoff Scholars Program represents the clearest articulation of Hrabowski’s philosophy.
“That’s not accidental success,” she says. “That’s intentional excellence.”
Why Following Freeman Required Preparation
Ashby is clear-eyed about what it means to lead after a president of Hrabowski’s stature.
“I don’t see myself as following Freeman,” she says. “I see myself as standing on his shoulders.”
That framing matters. UMBC did not need reinvention. It needed stewardship—someone capable of protecting, extending, and defending a hard-won legacy.
Ashby’s background helps explain why the University System of Maryland Board of Regents saw her as that leader.
A President Forged for Stewardship
In April 2026, it will be four years since the Board of Regents named Valerie Sheares Ashby UMBC’s sixth president and the first woman to hold the role.
Her presidency has coincided with continued institutional ascent. UMBC was recently recognized as one of only three institutions in Maryland to earn both Carnegie R1 research status and designation as a Carnegie Community Engaged Campus. This distinction places UMBC among the top five percent of research universities in the United States.
The Community Engagement Classification, renewed for another six years, honors institutions that collaborate with public and private partners to share knowledge, support research and creative work, and advance the public good.
For Ashby, the recognition reflects Hrabowski’s blueprint in action.
“Research excellence and community engagement are not opposites,” she says. “That’s something Freeman demonstrated long before it was fashionable.”
A Scholar-Leader Who Understood the Mission
Before coming to UMBC, Ashby served as dean of Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences beginning in 2015. Earlier, she spent more than a decade at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, joining the faculty in 2003 and chairing the Department of Chemistry from 2012 to 2015.
At UNC, she also led the National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, helping expand pathways to doctoral degrees and faculty careers in STEM and the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
Ashby earned both her bachelor’s degree and doctorate in chemistry from UNC Chapel Hill and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Mainz in Germany. A polymer chemist with more than ten patents, she was nominated by Career Communications Group in 2022 for Technologist of the Year, recognizing the societal impact of her scientific and leadership contributions.
Yet credentials alone do not explain her alignment with UMBC.
“Freeman built a culture where excellence was expected and humanity was non-negotiable,” Ashby says. “That’s the kind of institution I wanted to lead.”
Why Baltimore—and Why UMBC
Ashby’s decision to come to Baltimore was deliberate.
“Baltimore is honest,” she says. “It’s a city with challenges, yes—but also with brilliance, resilience, and deep humanity.”
She saw in UMBC a university deeply connected to its place and deeply committed to its students.
“If you believe education transforms lives,” she explains, “you have to be willing to lead where that transformation matters.”
UMBC’s location—anchored in Maryland, connected to Washington, and globally engaged—mirrors the mission Hrabowski advanced for decades.
Protecting the Light
As Part One of this three-part series, this article establishes the foundation: Freeman Hrabowski’s legacy and the responsibility it confers.
Ashby is unequivocal about that responsibility.
“Freeman showed us what was possible,” she says. “My job is to protect it, extend it, and tell the truth about why it works.”
The truth, she believes, remains simple and urgent.
“He gave UMBC a soul,” Ashby says. “My job is to make sure it continues to shine.”