A Peek Inside … Education Professor Sharon Fries-Britt’s Office
Bright Corner Space Features Wall of Heroes, Gifts From Students, Favorite Photos
From heartfelt student gifts to portraits of her heroes, Distinguished University Professor Sharon Fries-Britt has filled her College of Education office with University of Maryland mementos and more.
Photos by Dylan Singleton
Depending on which decade you met Sharon Fries-Britt at the University of Maryland, you might have encountered an eager small-town student in the 1970s, a thoughtful student affairs staffer in the 1990s or a decorated faculty member and researcher she is today.
“I love working on a college campus,” said Distinguished University Professor Fries-Britt. “It's one of the few multigenerational environments where you can have a 20-something-year-old and an 80-something-year-old in the same place. The older I get, the more I love it. If you're willing to stay open and change and learn, it's amazing.”
She never planned to become a professor, but after a decade working to retain underrepresented students, she felt drawn to develop a deeper understanding of their experiences. She earned her doctorate, then encouraged by her mentors, joined the faculty of the College of Education.
Fries-Britt’s research focuses on high-achieving African American students, especially those in STEM fields, and their social and academic lives at predominantly white institutions. While previous research often started by assuming Black students wouldn’t succeed, she pioneered the opposite approach, starting with the premise that “our academic talent is as diverse as any other community.”
From her third-floor corner office in the Benjamin Building, overlooking a back garden popular for College of Ed gatherings, she shares how her wall art honors the Black women in every field who inspire her, her family’s love of the outdoors and what’s kept her at UMD for so many years.
Wall of heroes
“You have to recognize that you stand on the shoulders of a lot of people who've carved pathways before you,” said Fries-Britt. Set directly across from her desk, so she can look up at them at any time, are four Black women trailblazers: opera singer Leontyne Price, actress and poet Ruby Dee, sprinter Wilma Rudolph and author Toni Morrison. The photos have a personal connection as well; they come from the book “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America,” first owned by Fries-Britt’s mother, Mary. She was an inspiration herself, earning a college degree at 52 after raising her children.
African art
Through her travels and gifts from students and colleagues, Fries-Britt has amassed a small collection of art from Africa, including a wood carving of a child lifting another up to a tree, given to her after a doctoral student successfully defended her dissertation, and a small chair she uses as a purse stand, purchased during a 1997 trip to Ghana. There, she and her husband visited Cape Coast Castle, where enslaved people were sent on ships across the ocean. “It was very emotional for both of us. I remember we said to each other, ‘Whenever we encounter challenges, we’ve got to remember this moment standing up here.’”
Ned Britt
This photo of her husband of 35 years was taken in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The couple loves to hike together—one of their first dates was to the Shenandoah Mountains, where her camping skills impressed Britt.
But it hasn’t always been easy to be a Black outdoorsman. Britt, a former kinesiology faculty member at Towson who later ran the school’s intramural sports program, frequently encountered racism when taking students on hikes or campouts; fellow hikers would take his (usually white) students aside and ask they if they were OK.
Mini chalkboard
Another gift from a graduate, this one reminds Fries-Britt of all the joy she gets from her students’ accomplishments. She’s advised dozens of doctoral candidates and served on nearly 200 dissertation committees, and some of those grads have become as close as family members. She often recalls what one mentor, former higher education Professor Richard Chait, told her: “The true sign of a mentor is when your people go off and do better than you.”
Turtle shell
“People ask, ‘How long have you been here?’” said Fries-Britt, a Terp since her undergrad days, other than a few years earning a master’s degree at Ohio State and briefly working at Towson. “I joke and say, ‘40 years—I count the years when they started paying me, not when I was paying them!’”
The large shell on her wall symbolizes her pride in UMD—her daughter Katura Britt ’21 is a Terp as well—as the university has evolved into a more diverse school since she was one of the few Black students in the 1970s. She’s helped usher in change at all levels, including serving on search committees for presidents Wallace D. Loh and Darryll J. Pines. “People say it sounds really crazy to be at one place for a long time, but it has not felt like the same place for me.”
This is part of an occasional series offering a look inside some of the most interesting faculty and staff offices around campus. Think you have a cool workspace—or know someone’s that you’d like to recommend? Email kshih@umd.edu.
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