Sydney Freeman, PhD

Sydney Freeman Jr., Ph.D., is revolutionizing the way we think about higher education. With a focus on Black student and employee experiences in higher education, the faculty career-cycle and higher education, Freeman’s research is breaking down barriers and pushing boundaries.
At 36 years old, Freeman made U of I history as the first African American man to achieve full professorship at the university. He’s also the director of the university’s Black History Research Lab, which was founded in 2021. His appreciation of Black history fueled his desire to help share stories of past Black students and faculty members on a college campus where those groups may feel under-represented. And recently, he founded the Black Research Institute for Flourishing and Thriving an initiative that develops scholarship that leads to effective policy and practice prescriptions that facilitate a wholistic sense of belonging and joy for the Black community.