While President & CEO of the National Student Clearinghouse, Rick Torres believed that we can begin to aggressively address our nation's education-to-workforce challenges with reliable, verified data and information in today's digitalized education and technical environments. The Clearinghouse provides trusted and private access to comprehensive academic data and other learning records that empower education leaders, employers, learners, and researchers to achieve their goals and aspirations. Data is key to opening the doors for learners of all backgrounds, races, and socioeconomic statuses, especially as we grapple with the millions of students from underserved communities who are striving to do better.
Since arriving at the Clearinghouse in 2008, Rick has grown the Clearinghouse by 600% today serving institutions that enroll 98% of the post-secondary population and 25,000 high schools and State Education Authorities in all 50 states. The Clearinghouse has become a convening point for education. By regularly convening academic and workplace leaders, Rick works to shed light on the pressing issues facing our higher education-to-workforce ecosystem, such as equity in education, closing workforce skills gaps, and creating lifelong learning pathways. Under Rick’s leadership, the Clearinghouse is developing a nationwide pilot program for an easier way to translate all education, training, and work experience to empower learners.
The organization is partnering with WorkCred to accelerate the capture of workforce credentials and their relative economic value. The Clearinghouse continuously looks to improve and make efficient regulatory data and reporting requirements. The latest of which was the GE/FVT rollout in late fall 2024.
Rick has been an active board member of the BrightPoint Community College Foundation for the past 20 years and also serves on the Board of Achieving The Dream. He also sat on the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Board from 2012 to 2016 as well as the Board of the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) for 9 years. He was a founding member of the Groningen Declaration Network, a multi-national group of leaders dedicated to developing a trusted international data exchange ecosystem, and currently chairs GDN's Advisory Council.
In 2017 and 2018, Rick was selected as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist for the Mid-Atlantic region. He was also a recipient of the Washington Business Journal's 2013 Minority Business Leader Award. He is married to Karen and has 4 adult children all in their 30's. He is a music and arts enthusiast and enjoyed playing tennis and golf (until his hip and shoulder gave out!)
Rick holds an MBA in International Finance from Georgetown University and undergraduate degrees in Marketing and Management from Manhattan College.