Jorge Gonzalez has served as President of Kalamazoo College since July 2016. A fierce champion of the liberal arts, Gonzalez has more than 30 years of experience in higher education. In his time at K, Gonzalez has overseen the development of two strategic plans, most recently Advancing Kalamazoo College 2029, a new 29,600-square-foot natatorium, a new Admission Center, infrastructure improvements to reduce K’s carbon footprint, a new natatorium, and much more. In 2021, he led the public launch of The Brighter Light Campaign, the institution’s largest fundraising campaign to date, which focused on support for student access to every facet of the K-Plan and investments in the institution’s faculty, instructional spaces, athletic programming, and other aspects of campus life. The campaign exceeded two fundraising goals ($150 million and $190 million respectively), raising a total of $203,236,489 from more than 16,500 donors. 

Previously Gonzalez served as Occidental College’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College from 2010 until 2016 and he was a member of the Trinity University faculty for 21 years (1989-2010).  Gonzalez served as chair of Trinity’s economics department for nine years and as special assistant to the president from 2008 to 2010.  At Trinity, he played an important role in the internationalization of the curriculum, the creation of faculty-led study abroad experiences, the development of an open access policy for faculty scholarship, and the implementation of new interdisciplinary initiatives. He served as an American Council on Education Fellow at Pomona College in 2007-08. At Occidental, he focused on providing strategic direction to the academic program, enhancing the academic policy structure, and working with external constituents to advance the goals of the College.

A graduate of the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Monterrey, Mexico, Gonzalez earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University. He has published extensively on such topics as foreign investment, undocumented immigration, international trade in the Americas, the Mexican financial system, and the political economy of U.S. trade and immigration legislation. A winner of Trinity’s top teaching award, he has taught courses in micro- and macroeconomics, international trade, economic development, and the economies of Mexico and Spain.

Gonzalez is the president of the Board of the F.W. and Elsie L. Heyl Science Scholarship Fund, the chair of the Board of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, the Michigan Independent Colleges and Universities, and the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and serves on the boards of the Annapolis Group, the American Council on Education, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Michigan Colleges Alliance, Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo Community Foundation, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association in 2014. 

Curriculum vitae, Web Version