Jose Morales Gonzalez
Hall of Fame Class of 2002
Jose Morales Gonzales has played an international leadership role through his remarkable contributions to adult and continuing education and made vast contributions to the advancement of the field in his native Mexico for the past 25 years. He has embraced many other countries and shared his international perspective, and his determination to find new pathways and innovations in continuing education. He began his international connection to continuing education when he received a scholarship at Rice University in Houston, Texas where he received a Master's degree in Architecture and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Houston.
Since 1990, Dr. Morales has served two roles. He is the Director General of the Universidad en la Communidad (UNICO) of the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, the first community college in Mexico. There, he implemented and adapted the educational concepts of the community college to Mexico. In his additional role, he has served as Director General at the Division of Continuing Education (EDUCON) since 1980. EDUCON is one of two major continuing education units in Mexico, developing annual programs offering a broad curriculum of more than 400 courses. EDUCON now has extensive relations with other U.S. and Canadian universities.
He was Professor of the School of Architecture for six years at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, later becoming Dean of the school. Dr Morales was also the director of the Design Center Institute from 1977 through 1980. In his role as Director of the Design Center (Architecture, Interior Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, and Plastic Arts), he developed an outreach program, Architecture for Americas. This program attracts some of the foremost architects from the United States and Canada to Guadalajara. He also designed a program to include architecture in primary schools.
Dr. Morales developed the Mexican Continuing Education Association (AMEC) and served as President of the organization for its first two terms. Additionally, he was instrumental in involving EDUCON in the University Continuing Education Association and associating with the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUSE) and The National University Teleconference Network (NUTN).
The educational influence of Dr. Morales has enhanced and transformed the lives of many individuals in Mexico and throughout the world.