By Autumn Walden, Editor, AACRAO Connect, Content Strategy Manager, AACRAO
The tradition of presenting AACRAO Awards has endured for over six decades, recognizing exceptional individuals who leave a memorable impact on the higher education community. The AACRAO Centennial Award for Excellence honors those outside of traditional AACRAO roles who have profoundly influenced the field, and this year’s recipient, Ricardo "Rick" Torres, is a leader whose work has transformed the way institutions, policymakers, and researchers understand student pathways. We will present these honors at the 110th AACRAO Annual Meeting, and in the meantime, we hope you are encouraged by the real stories of people connected to our professional community.
As President and CEO of the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) for nearly two decades, Torres guided the organization through remarkable growth, ensuring that accurate, reliable data supports student success and institutional effectiveness. Under his leadership, the Clearinghouse expanded its reach to thousands of institutions, pioneered the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, and streamlined essential data services that benefit students and schools nationwide.
It’s a privilege to grab a few moments with such an influential and respected figure in the education industry. Torres recently retired in February 2025, and in this interview, he shares his insights on the impact of his work, the lessons learned from his tenure, and advice for future practitioners in the field he has served so profoundly.
Over your 17+ years leading the National Student Clearinghouse, what has been your proudest achievement in democratizing access to education data?
The opportunity to give back: I never expected that giving back to education with the Clearinghouse could be this rewarding. Frankly, I had no idea what giving back meant when I joined. The give-back evolved along with the organization as our mission of democratized data access and support also evolved.
The data, reporting, and related insights access-based mission purpose of the NSC was redefined, extended and delivered, and adopted on a national basis beyond what anyone thought possible: 27,000 high schools, 45 states, and institutions that enroll 97.5% of post-secondary enrolled students have been directly impacted by the work of the NSC over this time. The utilization and relevance of our national reports (Completions, Current Term Enrollment, Some College No Credentials, Transfer and Progress, HS Benchmarking) and the complementary use of StudentTracker College and University and StudentTracker HS has been breathtaking.
The impact has been two-fold:
First, to push the envelope in helping participating institutions tell their story by addressing evolving education pathways and helping schools determine how their relative engagement with learners is leading to academic and socio-economic progressions, as in our most recent work.
Second, to help policymakers at every level, Federal, State, and local, and K20 support organizations can access data to inform data-driven policy making.
We accomplished all of this without taking our focus away from our core value proposition to the institutions we serve in higher ed, related to the interface with the U.S. Department of Education tied to the student loans and enrollment reporting. Our Financial Value Transparency / Gainful Employment work, released toward year end, and through January, was a clear win for our participants.
As a founding member of the Groningen Declaration Network Group, what lessons have you learned about building trusted international data exchange systems?
The most uncomfortable insight is that the digital divide continues to grow internationally, favoring the more advanced countries. Innovations created and implemented in the more advanced countries do not efficiently or effectively reach the less advanced countries for a host of reasons. This gives rise to a digital divide where, for example, refugees have limited capacity to retain and move their data electronically. Companies have little incentive to support these initiatives due to a lack of ability to generate profits.
The biggest insight is that achieving learner and learning portability highly depends on the acceptance of potential recipients of the verified digitalized data contained in any given profile. A recipient must be able to ingest, understand, and accept what is contained within a data profile. It is no different than an academic transfer, except that it includes non-degree credentials and workplace-related data and information.
The underlying foundational data assumption is that digital information is verified and that the assessments (and assessors) of competencies and credentials (as well as their issuers) are also trusted. A lot of the focus of GDN has been on creating an aligned set of areas supporting these portability foundational areas. Members and signatories are very committed to the cause. GDN is focused on developing a coalition of willing international doers in this pursuit.
GDN has shown that there is global interest in pursuing these enabling digital mobility ends, including closing the digital divide.
What do you enjoy most about your work and/or involvement with AACRAO?
- The people. From the very first time I attended AACRAO’s Annual Meeting in 2008 in Orlando, I considered myself fortunate to meet an organization with its membership so committed to serving learners and protecting the learner record. AACRAO members are so willing to support others in learning how best to support their work and the learners' journey. It has been a terrific 17-year learning journey. By far, AACRAO has been, through its membership, the most enabling member organization I associated with. AACRAO gets things done. This is an organization made up of terrific caring people. I have made lifelong friendships within the membership and leadership. You know how to have fun while getting big things done; that is a great combination.
- Trust. We have aligned strategies built on common purposes and trust. It has been clear from the beginning that AACRAO membership trusted the NSC in a way that was unique in business. During my tenure at NSC, we felt that the sustaining of that trust was essential and core to our relationship with AACRAO and each institution that participated in the NSC.
- Responsiveness. One of the more interesting journeys has been our mutual evolutions of focus in supporting the evolving needs of learners. This was through advancing how we work with each other, both as organizations and individually, school to school, as well as NSC’s focus on making more efficient the way data and reporting can flow between us and the Department and amongst institutions.
- FERPA focus. Our mutual unwavering commitment to protecting learner and institutional privacy remains foundational to our work.
- GDN work. International data exchange ensuring data portability includes data protection and learning mobility enablement through recognition and standards.
- Operational Alignment (Enrollment Reporting) support during high stress periods. Whether it was the 150% rule or FVT/GE we partnered heavily with AACRAO to enable over 2,300 institutions to leverage the NSC platform for the latter under a very tight timetable.
- The future. I have great hopes that the new NSC leadership and AACRAO will continue to partner and help shape, and in some cases build bridges to the future, in support of learners and institutions.
Have you encountered any unexpected or notable experiences along your professional path?
I’ll share three insights/events that drove me from early employment until now…
- Long term: The importance of doing your best every day and helping others do their best. It’s a daily goal that basically says that every interaction matters, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you. Upon my retirement, I received a countless number of references to small acts of kindness and interactions that carried a lot of weight to individuals.
- While at NSC:
Dealing with disasters and high stress situations, supporting our colleagues. Hurricane Maria support for Puerto Rico and our COVID work from home transition. The latter, which quickly pivoted to supporting our participating institutions where working from home over an extended period of time was NOT in the playbook. This was very rewarding for us.
Dealing with the unpredictability of the timing and nature of regulatory changes and their respective impacts on data reporting. Understanding that as regulations change, the NSC needs to be prepared to be highly responsive and partnered with many of the higher education associations to ensure that these regulations are understood and changes implemented, usually on very tight schedules.
Who are your role models?
My parents, who consistently demonstrated to me the definition of unconditional love, and over the years also have been the embodiment of what it means to age with grace, purpose, dignity, and love.
What advice would you give aspiring leaders and higher education administration changemakers?
Clarity: To be a catalyst of change, make sure you are clear on the change you seek to make. Is it something that can be articulated and understood? Take stock of not just your observations but the observations of others to the “what” of change, and the “why” and that will open the conversations to the “hows” of change.
Partnership: You need to bring people along, and be a partner. There is no shortage of colleagues in different administrative functions at your institution who are aligned around universal goals such as trying to improve the outcomes of every learner they touch. The registrar’s office is not alone. Seek these champions out on your campus.
Kindness: Small acts of kindness go a long way.
Listen and be willing to be challenged.
Do not let small or even large-scale disruptions take away from the change goal. Disruptions may modify the “hows,” but if the “what” is worth it, then the “what” should be immutable.