Appointed by the Executive Council, the Chief Negotiator leads the team negotiating new UPM contracts.

My name is Marco Gonzalez and for the last seven years I have taught Sociology here at COM.  

Since my hire, I have actively sought to support our campus community both inside and outside the classroom in a number of ways – from serving on the Diversity and Equity Committee to working as the Research Methodologist for COM’s Faculty-Led Inquiry Team (FLIT).  However, most of my work outside the classroom has been in service to our union, where I’ve served as a member of the Executive Council, the Collective Bargaining Team, and UPM’s Grievance Officer prior to my current appointment as Chief Negotiator.   

Before being hired full-time at COM, I taught Sociology at various other community colleges throughout the San Francisco Bay Area including Santa Rosa Junior College, Napa Valley College, and Diablo Valley College.  I also worked as a Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Nuffield College and was a National Science Foundation Fellow with the Social Science Research Council. I completed my graduate work at Harvard University and earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley.  Born and raised in Richmond, California, I am also a proud former community college student having attended both Contra Costa and Diablo Valley College.