More About Our Leaders

Our senior management team is comprised of experienced and dedicated professionals committed to providing high-quality services to the organizations that rely on the Clearinghouse.

Ricardo “Rick” Torres

President & CEO

Mr. Torres joined the Clearinghouse as its president and CEO in 2008. Under his leadership, the Clearinghouse has continued to successfully extend its mission delivery of access-driven service to education, providing accessible innovative technology-based services and data exchange solutions that enable education institutions and organizations to focus on being engines that maximize human potential development. Today, the Clearinghouse is a national leader in evolving to an edu-workforce data-driven ecosystem. Mr. Torres currently serves as a board member for the Brightpoint Community College Foundation and Achieving the Dream. He was a founding member of the Groningen Declaration Network Group, a multinational group of leaders dedicated to developing a trusted international data exchange ecosystem and today serves as the chairman of their Advisory Council. Mr. Torres holds an MBA in international finance from Georgetown University and undergraduate degrees in both marketing and management from Manhattan College.

Christopher “Chris” Goodson

Chief Growth Officer

Mr. Goodson, who joined the Clearinghouse in May 2023, has a more than two-decade track record of success working across education verticals. As Chief Growth Officer, he oversees the organization’s continued expansion, particularly as it broadens its footprint in the workforce development and skills training areas. Before joining the Clearinghouse, Mr. Goodson held several leadership positions in education technology and business solutions. Most recently, he was with Lumen Learning as Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Customer Experience. Prior to Lumen, he spent six years at Amazon Web Services (AWS), assisting U.S. higher education customers transform their environments with cloud services. At HMH, he served first as a Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs and Social Responsibility and later Education Services, and during eight years at Microsoft, Mr. Goodson held leadership roles in the U.S. and Worldwide Public Sector, focused primarily on Education. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Mary Chapin

VP, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary

Ms. Chapin joined the Clearinghouse in 2016 and has over 28 years of legal experience. She leads the Clearinghouse’s Legal department, which is responsible for the organization’s legal, regulatory, and governmental affairs. Ms. Chapin also serves as the Corporate Secretary for both the Clearinghouse and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, advising the board of directors on risk and governance issues. Before joining the Clearinghouse, Ms. Chapin was a litigation partner in the Intellectual Property, Media, and Technology Department of McDermott, Will & Emery LLP, an international law firm. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Buffalo and a law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law.

Doug Falk

VP and Chief Information Officer

Mr. Falk has served in technology leadership positions for 21 years at the Clearinghouse. He provides vision and leadership for information technology initiatives that align with business goals to improve client responsiveness, quality, security and compliance, and cost-effectiveness. Before joining the Clearinghouse, Mr. Falk spent 10 years in IT at Sallie Mae. He has served on the PESC board of directors for 15 years and as chair for six years. He earned a master’s degree in information systems technology from George Washington University and an undergraduate degree in computer information systems from DeVry Institute of Technology.

Larry Hatch

VP, Business Solutions, Communications & Marketing

As vice president of business solutions, communications, and marketing at the Clearinghouse, Mr. Hatch is responsible for the Clearinghouse’s growing academic credential verification services, along with maintaining the company’s brand and reputation. He is committed to continually delivering exceptional value to the education community. He has over 30 years of general management, sales, and business development experience in the nonprofit, marketing services, e-commerce, technology, financial services, telecommunications, and manufacturing industries. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson University.

Roberta Hyland

Chief Data Officer

Ms. Hyland has been with the Clearinghouse since 1997 and has more than 25 years of experience in education data and policy, enrollment management, and financial aid. She works with and across all areas of the Clearinghouse organization to support the successful delivery of the Clearinghouse’s mission and strategic priorities. Ms. Hyland serves as a member of Gartner’s Data and Analytics Advisory Board and its Data and Analytics Conference Board. In 2021, Ms. Hyland was named to CDO Magazine’s Global Data Power Women List. For more than 20 years, she has worked with high schools and high school students in regional and national-level speech and debate leagues. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies concentrating in German and Russian from Muhlenberg College and a master’s degree in higher education concentrating in enrollment management from Drexel University.

Erin Seraydian

VP and Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Seraydian joined the Clearinghouse in 2017 to lead the financial planning and business analytics team and since that time has also helped grow and lead the Project Management Office to implement agile methodologies across the business and currently serves as the Vice President and CFO managing Accounting, Finance and the Risk Management group.  Prior to joining the Clearinghouse Ms. Seraydian has served in a variety of industries including fortune 500 companies within software, real estate development and new home construction, hospitality and telecommunications where she has worn many hats including internal audit, operations finance, project management and financial planning. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance and International Business from The University of Maryland and is committed to lifelong learning with a variety of certificates in marketing statistics, leadership and six sigma.

George Levathes

VP, Compliance and Operations

Mr. Levathes serves as the Clearinghouse’s subject matter expert in federal student aid regulatory compliance and oversees the operations area, which includes data excellence and customer care. He is responsible for analyzing and interpreting federal financial aid regulations regarding all Title IV programs to develop strategies and priorities of the Clearinghouse. He has over 30 years of operations, finance, and accounting experience and is the Clearinghouse’s longest-serving employee, having started with the organization in 1995. Before joining the Clearinghouse, Mr. Levathes spent seven years in the financial reconciliation, reporting, and process controls areas of Sallie Mae’s loan servicing operations. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland.

Bridget Sedlock

Chief People Officer

Ms. Sedlock joined the Clearinghouse in August of 2016 to lead human resources, internal communications, and administrative services across the organization. Before joining the Clearinghouse, she spent 18 years at the North American corporate headquarters of Rolls-Royce in various HR roles that included running the international expatriate program, recruitment, compensation and benefits, and employment policy and compliance. As an HR business partner at Rolls-Royce, she supported a remote team of HR professionals who provided advisory services to over 5,000 employees. She grew up overseas as the daughter of a U.S. diplomat, which originally led her to the international HR field. Ms. Sedlock graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in government and foreign affairs. 

​David G. Payne

VP, Learner Insights

As vice president of Learner Insights, Mr. Payne drives the organization’s unification and growth of several products and services into one vertical business division, Learner Insights. Before joining the Clearinghouse in May 2023, he served as Senior Strategic Advisor, Solutions at JFF Labs, Jobs for the Future. Prior to that position, he spent several years at Educational Testing Services (ETS), where he served in various roles, from Associate Vice President to Global Higher Education Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He also served as Chairman of ETS Global B.V. and ETS International Holdings Limited. Mr. Payne was a professor, the Psychology Department Chair, Vice Provost, and Graduate Dean at Binghamton University – SUNY in Binghamton, New York. He has a Ph.D. in psychology from Purdue University. In addition, he holds a Master of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science, Psychology, both from State University of New York College at Cortland.

​Cameron Watt

VP of Sales, Education Solutions

As the vice president of Sales for Education Solutions, Mr. Watt works to build and expand relationships with the Clearinghouse’s nationwide customer base. He is also responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive sales and business development strategy to expand the adoption of new education solutions nationwide. Before joining the Clearinghouse, he served as the Education Sales Director-Northeast at Snowflake, a data cloud solution for organizations looking to store, manage and leverage their data. He previously was the head of State and Local Government-Northeast for Google Cloud and also spent over six years at Amazon Web Services managing the Enterprise higher ed business across the U.S. Cameron additionally worked at Microsoft for 10 years in various education related roles including, East Education Sales Manager (K-20). Mr. Watt received his B.A. in political science from Alfred University and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Doug Shapiro, Ph.D.

VP, Research and Executive Director, Research Center

Dr. Shapiro joined the Clearinghouse in 2010 and has been advancing student success by conducting research on higher education at the institution, state, and national levels for over 20 years. As part of his work for the Research Center, he established over a dozen new reports, with metrics on student access, persistence, transfer, and completion. Prior to joining the Clearinghouse, he held positions as director of institutional research at The New School and vice president for research and policy development at the Minnesota Private College Council. He also served on the board of directors of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Dr. Shapiro holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Chicago, a master’s in mathematics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.