Emmanuel E. Gonsalves was appointed President of COSTAATT on September 1, 2008.
President Gonsalves returned to Trinidad after nineteen years at Medgar Evers College, New York, where he was intimately involved in creating and implementing educational policies and programmes at the highest policy-making level. He has served as Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Senior Policy Advisor to the President/Legal Affairs, Vice President/Dean of Strategic Planning and Information Technology, Dean of the School of Business, Vice President/Dean of Finance and Development, and Chief of Staff. During this time, Mr. Gonsalves has directed the development and implementation of comprehensive strategic plans, information technology and telecommunications strategic and tactical plans, fiscal policy, budgeting and operations management, including facilities management, academic programme planning, capital construction programmes, institutional advancement and marketing and communications strategies, human resource management plans, government relations strategies and community development strategies.
President Gonsalves’ educational philosophy is guided by the belief that the pursuit and attainment of higher/tertiary education is a right and not a privilege, and is the best and most assured way of achieving a better life for ourselves and our families. He believes that education has the capacity to transform: a person, a people, communities, nations, and ultimately the world. As such, Mr. Gonsalves believes that every student who is admitted to COSTAATT should be provided with the best possible array of educational programmes and services to help them achieve their goals and aspirations.
Inherent in this philosophy is the recognition that every student is an individual with different goals, different learning styles and different needs, and as such, each student should be provided with an individualized educational programme and opportunities for life-changing experiences, thus helping him/her to transform his/her life, community and ultimately the nation.
Mr. Gonsalves holds the faculty rank of Associate Professor of Law and Finance. He has earned a Juris Doctor (JD) in corporate law from Fordham University School of Law, and is licensed to practice law in the State of New York. He is also the holder of an MBA in finance and strategic planning from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkley, an MS and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the Millennium Leadership Institute of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
The father of two daughers, he is married to Shurla A. Charles, a medical doctor, also a native of Trinidad and Tobago.