She finds Boston cold and cloudy, frets about not being able to find pommecythere in the States, and for Thanksgiving dinner she served curried channa and aloo, chicken and buss-up-shut. She first played Kiddies' Carnival at age five, loves the beach, likes to fete, and tucks into a good crab and callaloo whenever she gets the chance. The only thing Renée Richardson Gosline doesn't have is a Trini birth certificate. Born in Brooklyn, NY to Trinidadian parents, Gosline grew up with one foot in the snow and the other one ankle-deep in Maracas sand. She's proud to call T&T her second home, and we, in turn, are proud of her. After receiving her first degree in Sociology at Harvard, Gosline achieved a doctoral degree from Harvard Business School in Marketing. Now teaching a PhD course in Consumer Behaviour and an MBA course in Branding at MIT Sloan in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she has been named one of the "Top 40 business professors under age 40 in the world" by Poets and Quants. The networking community analyses and rates business schools and courses on behalf of students.
Inclusion on the list is based on student feedback, as well as a professor's research and contribution to knowledge. One of Gosline's more interesting discoveries is that black market knock-offs (think $100 "Gucci" handbags made in Manila) can actually help, rather than hurt, a brand. Her years of working in advertising and marketing as a planner and account supervisor at Leo Burnett and a brand management associate at LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton have helped inform her understanding of the billion-dollar brand name game. "It is a humbling honour," she says of the award, but she didn't bother publicising it to her students. "They care more about what I'm going to teach them, and whether they will be tested on it, than faculty awards!" A quick look at the Top 40 list shows that women are in the minority, but that stands to reason, given that most of her colleagues, and indeed, most of her students, are male. She doesn't see her femininity as a handicap, however. "MIT Sloan has a very supportive environment; in fact, the president of MIT is a woman. Female faculty at MIT Sloan have an annual get-together, and it's a great opportunity to spend time with my female colleagues. Several of my female students have also commented that they appreciate having a female professor. That's gratifying."
Though much has been said locally, and even globally, about the continued rise in female enrolment at a tertiary level and the resulting pressure being placed on males to keep up, she doesn't think this is unfair. "I don't think that males are being left behind, as women have had some catching up to do. Women are challenging the notions of what a professor looks like, or, in the case of T&T, what a prime minister looks like. That can only be a good thing. It's truly an exciting time to be a woman, and I'm pleased that there are some wonderful role models. Despite these inroads, women still don't earn the same as men for the same work. Until that gap is rectified, there is plenty more work to do." Gosline doesn't let her academic life consume her. She and her "amazing, supportive husband, Christopher," make sure to get in their couple time. She rotates her getaways between snow-capped mountains, where she loves to snowboard, and visiting the land of her parents, which she does at least once every year with the fervency of a pilgrim. She admits that every time her plane touches down at Piarco, she has to quell the impulse to break into applause. Gosline is the kind of brand ambassador T&T needs; she's dragged an assortment of friends, relatives, in-laws and classmates over here, infecting them one by one with her love of everything these islands have to offer. "All are welcome. Some even return to T&T on their own!"
In the future, she can see herself owning a home here, paving the way to offer her training and experience to benefit T&T in its thrust toward developing an international brand. "I miss being surrounded by the culture of my roots. There's just something about Trinidad and Tobago. It's such a special place... being there is food for the soul." Although to an outsider being named among the Top 40 of anything might seem a daunting honour to live up to, Gosline chooses simply to remain focused on her students and their needs. Her one bit of advice to the women sitting among the sea of males in the auditorium? "Speak up. Women are relatively reticent when it comes to speaking up and asking questions in classrooms and in meetings. It's critical that we take control of our learning experiences and make our voices heard."