Jorge G. Gonzalez

Jorge G. Gonzalez is the eighteenth president of Kalamazoo College, a position he has held since 2016. Previously he served six years as Occidental College’s vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college. He was a member of the Trinity University faculty for 21 years.

At Kalamazoo College, Gonzalez has championed the value of an individualized, rigorous, residential, liberal arts and science education infused with life-changing experiential opportunities. 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. 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.

A graduate of the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Monterrey, Mexico, Gonzalez earned his master’s degree 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.

He is currently the president of the board of the F.W. and Elsie L. Heyl Science Scholarship Fund and serves on the boards of The Annapolis Group, the Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo Community Foundation, the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, the Great Lakes Colleges Association, the Michigan Colleges Alliance, and the Michigan Independent Colleges and Universities.