Robert R. Gosende
Special Recognition: ICCR Special Recognition for Global Leadership and Public Diplomacy
Robert resides in Guilderland, NY. He works with institutions and students across the U.S. advising on international education activities and programs.
Mr. Gosende served for 36 years in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Information Agency before joining the state University of New York in December of 1998. Mr. Gosende's overseas experience includes tors of duty as Cultural Affairs Officer in Tripoli, Libya, Somalia, and Poland and as Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs in South africa and the Russian Federation. He served as President Clinton's Special Envoy for Somalia, with the personal rank of Ambassador, at the height of the security and humanitarian crisis during 1992/93. On tours of duty in Washington, D.C., Mr. Gosende served as the Associate Director of USIA's Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs, and as the Deputy Director and Director of USIA's Office of sub-Saharan African. During 1994, he was the Senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs directing the U.S. Government's activities in support of the elections that brought Nelson Mandela to the South African presidency in April 1994.
As Associate Vice Chancellor and Senior International Officer Mr. Gosende and his staff worked closely with faculty and administrators across SUNY's 64 campuses to assist with their Study Abroad Programs and with international student enrollment. He was also responsible for working with campuses as they developed joint academic programs with overseas universities. Under his leadership the SUNY Office of International programs, which he founded, established international branches in Turkey, Mexico and the Russian Federation which enabled some 2000 students to complete the academic program jointly and receive degrees from each participating institution.
Mr. Gosende was a Fellow at the Center for International Affairs and Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University in 1998/99. For the fall semester of 1992, Mr. Gosende served as Diplomat in Residence at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. During the academic year 1994/95. Mr. Gosende served as the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Public Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy At Tufts University.
Mr. Gosende is married to Mary Elizabeth Gosende, a food scientist and professor, who worked in her field at each of their overseas assignments. The Gosendes first went abroad to Uganda in 1964 where they were part of a team from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst that built a secondary school and teachers training college for women.
