SPARTAN NAMED PRESIDENT OF KALAMAZOO COLLEGE
The Board of Trustees of Kalamazoo College has chosen Jorge G. Gonzalez, Ph.D., to become the institution’s 18th president. Gonzalez is currently vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Gonzalez will begin his new duties as K’s president on July 1.
“I feel my life has been a preparation for this incredible opportunity to advance the liberal arts and the KPlan,” Gonzalez said. “Kalamazoo College’s mission is a perfect match with my deeply held belief in the learning values and the life values of experiential education and international education.”
Gonzalez said immersion in the liberal arts is the most powerful and life-enriching form of undergraduate education, especially when students have opportunities to apply their academic work in a variety of extra-curricular experiences. As a professor and as an administrator—both at Trinity University, where he worked from 1989 to 2010, and at Occidental College—he has created innovative programs combining liberal arts academics and experiential applications that cross borders and cultures.
“The board’s vote was unanimous, and our excitement boundless,” said Board of Trustees Chair Charlotte Hall, who led the presidential search committee. “Dr. Gonzalez is a passionate champion of the liberal arts and has an abiding commitment to the values embodied in the K-Plan: academic excellence, experiential learning, intercultural understanding and community engagement. Through all of his work, he has sought to make that powerful combination better and more accessible to diverse groups of students.”
Gonzalez won Trinity University’s most prestigious teaching award. He is widely published and a frequent contributor at professional and academic conferences. His research interests include international economics, political economy and development. He served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association in 2014 and was selected by the American Council on Education for the prestigious ACE Fellowship from 2007-2008. He spent that academic year at Pomona College and visited and spent time with the leaders of about 30 other colleges and universities across the country.
Gonzalez grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, and earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). During his junior year he studied abroad at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, an experience, he said, “that changed my life!” He earned his master’s degree in 1986 and his Ph.D. in 1989, both from the School of Social Science at Michigan State University.
Gonzalez is married to Suzie (Martin) Gonzalez. They have two children, a daughter, Kristina, who recently graduated from the University of Southern California and is now working in commercial real estate in Los Angeles, and a son, Carlos, who is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in computer science.
The appointment of Gonzalez is the culmination of a seven-month-long national search process.