About NLET
The National Laboratory for Education Transformation (NLET) is a Research and Development Human Capital & STEM Nonprofit founded in 2011 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area. NLET is driven to achieve parity between education, workforce, STEM, and biomedical research and the demands of modern culture and technology — through applied research, cross-sector collaboration, and innovation that strengthens human capability while navigating the emergence of AI.
With AI reshaping jobs faster than institutions can respond, and states under pressure to modernize fragmented talent infrastructure, NLET addresses a gap that few organizations are equipped to fill: providing structured, outcomes-oriented guidance for the reorganization of education-to-employment systems at web scale. Beginning in 2014, NLET began working with federal agencies, philanthropies, and state and county governments to develop this new category
NLET holds a contract with the California Community College Chancellor's Office for the delivery of corequisite math and work-ready math across the community college system. NLET also holds a subcontract with one of the four NSF-funded semiconductor "Nodes" in the National Network for Microelectronics Education (www.nnme.org). In addition, NLET maintains MOU relationships with regional higher education–affiliated human capital labs. Funding sources have included NSF, NIST, DOL, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a UCLA-CZI sub-award, and multiple regional foundation grants, school district contracts, and county office of education contracts.
Gordon Freedman — Founder and President, NLET
Gordon Freedman is the founder and president of the National Laboratory for Education Transformation (NLET), a California-based R&D nonprofit he established in 2011–12 to design, test, and scale new models connecting education, workforce development, and employment. His career spans from documentary film production to a decade as a founding-era education technology executive — including the launch of California State University Monterey Bay, the Prometheus Learning Management System at George Washington University, and HungryMinds.com, the first Internet portal for online education, where he served as Vice President of University and Publisher Relations. He later served as Vice President of Global Education Strategy at Blackboard Inc. from 2005 to 2011, helping grow the company from $100 million to a $1.4 billion acquisition. At NLET, Freedman has directed federal workforce innovation initiatives for the U.S. Department of Labor, National Science Foundation talent marketplace research, and state-level policy connecting education systems to measurable labor market outcomes. NLET currently holds a $1.5 million technology platform testing grant from the California Community Colleges equity office for the AB 1705 corequisite math system.
Ken Sorey — Executive Director, NLET
Ken Sorey is the Executive Director of the National Laboratory for Education Transformation. He brings deep knowledge and expertise in improving student pathways from K-12 education to college and the workplace, with a focus on technology-enhanced solutions to improve access and outcomes in education and training. He previously served as Senior Executive Vice President of Educational Results Partnership for 17 years and as state director of Cal-PASS Plus — the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success — a statewide collaborative in which California schools, colleges, and universities share student data to track and analyze performance and improve outcomes. In those roles he managed statewide and national initiatives providing actionable data to public schools, districts, colleges, and universities leading to improved academic, college completion, and workplace outcomes for students. He also consulted with UCLA on expanding CourseKata, an innovative statistics online textbook, into 12th-grade mathematics programs.