Mines Hosts Black History Month Speaker Dr. Sydney Freeman

In recognition of Black History Month, South Dakota Mines' student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the university's Center for Inclusion are hosting Dr. Sydney Freeman Jr., who will present a live virtual webinar titled “Where do we go from here,” at 6:30 p.m. MT on Wednesday, Feb. 24. The event is open to the public.

Dr. Freeman is an associate professor of Adult, Organizational Learning and Leadership at the University of Idaho. He also is an educational theorist, social scientist and nationally recognized former academic administrator with experience in various aspects of academic and student affairs. Freeman is a prolific author with nearly 100 articles to his credit and has lectured and presented at institutions such as Harvard University, Oxford University (UK), Jerusalem College of Technology (Israel) and RMIT University Vietnam, Saigon.

He is the lead editor of the text, Advancing Higher Education as a Field of Study: In Quest of Doctoral Degree Guidelines (Stylus Publishing, 2014), which received the 2015 Auburn University Graduate School “Book of the Year” Award. He also serves on the executive committee of the American Association of University Administrators and was honored with the “2015 Emergent Leader of the Year” award by the same professional society. This was based on his leadership at Tuskegee University in his previous capacity as director of one of their teaching and learning centers. He was named “the 2020 recipient of Auburn University's College of Education Outstanding Young Alumni award,” and was honored as one of the Accomplished Under 40 award recipients for 2020 by the Idaho Business Review.

This is the second speaker at Mines in celebration of 2021 Black History Month. In late January, the university hosted a virtual discussion on the topic of justice and equity with Selwyn Jones, the uncle of George Floyd, along with other panel members.