Center for Student Diversity

Phyllis Freeman joined the TU community in 2001. Prior to coming to Towson, she was engaged in services to women and children domestically and internationally, as well as being involved in freelance consulting. Dr. Freeman has held professorships at Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania and Hunter College, City University of New York.

She completed her undergraduate studies in Sociology and Psychology at Howard University, her Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania, and her doctorate at Hunter College, City University of New York. Her terminal degree is in Program Design and Evaluation.

Dr. Freeman has memberships in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the National Association of Minority Educators, the National Association of Women’s Studies, the National Association of Multicultural Educators, and the American Association of University Women.  She is a 2006 graduate of the President’s Leadership Institute.  She is also a part-time faculty member in the College of Education where she teaches a course, Teaching and Learning in a Diverse Society (EDUC-203).

As the director of the Women’s Center, Dr. Freeman serves on numerous search and standing committees: the Race and Gender Equity Committee in the Athletic Department, the Faculty Advisory Committee in the Asian Arts and Cultural Center, the Student Affairs Assessment Committee, the Service Learning Committee, Student Appeals Committee of the University Senate, Hate/Bias Response Team, and the Sexual Assault and Rape Response and Prevention Committee.

As a result of Dr. Freeman’s leadership, the Women’s Center has contributed to such scholarly efforts as:  the conceptualization of intersections of diversity markers; pathways of learning; and the present exploration of diversity from a constitutive/essence perspective that moves dialogue beyond issues of inclusivity by virtue of exceptionality.

The Women’s Center is known for its innovative community service, service learning and outreach into the greater Baltimore/Washington area.  Recent initiatives include conceptualization of a continuum of care under the rubric, Interrupting the Prison Pipeline, and the GG Project, a mentoring program for incarcerated teens.  Dr. Freeman has mounted over ten exhibitions at TU, including artists such as RC Gorman, Nivia Gonzalez,  Soraida Martinez, Elizabeth Catlett, and African Shona Sculptors.  The Women’s Center has hosted women filmmakers, documentarians, scholars,  social activists and change agents, including Lily Yeh, Leslie Feinberg,  Afeni  Shakur, Marsha Darling, Charlene Gilbert, and  Angela Y. Davis.

Dr. Freeman is the recipient of the Virtue Award for service to the Girls Believe Conference and has been invited on two occasions to the Oxford Roundtable Discussions on Race and Gender in Cambridge, England.  She has been instrumental in supporting the emergence of the Women and Minorities in the Media (WAMM) Festival and other creative works by women documentarians, such as Water Flowing Together, The Life of Jock Soto and Three Girls I Know, by Paula Mozen.