Gordon L. Freedman

Gordon Freedman is an American education technologist, former film and television producer and journalist.

Freedman is currently the president of the National Laboratory for Education Transformation (NLET), an educational nonprofit, which he founded in 2010. NLET is based in California and advocates for key transformations in mathematics education, STEM outreach, career and technical education (CTE), workforce development and education-to-employment solutions. Within NLET, Freedman heads MitoWorld, a global web-hub for research and information sharing within the mitochondrial research and clinical communities.

Early life and education Gordon Freedman grew up in Charlevoix, Michigan and studied at Michigan State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.

Career Freedman's early work included staff service on several Congressional committees. While in college, he was a staff member of the United States Senate Watergate Committee. He completed college, and then returned to Washington as a committee investigator for the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. In 1978, he was a staff investigator on the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations during the Koreagate investigation.

After leaving government service, Freedman transitioned into media and production. He worked as a filmmaker and television producer, developing and producing projects that explored social, cultural, and historical issues. His work in film and television contributed to his broader interest in public communication and educational media.

Freedman later moved into education and nonprofit leadership, founding the National Laboratory for Education Transformation, a nonprofit focused on rethinking education systems, workforce readiness, and technology-enabled learning. NLET works with schools, higher education institutions, and workforce organizations to develop strategies and technologies that support students, displaced workers, and lifelong learners.

Freedman co-founded MitoWorld whose aim is to establish mitochondrial medicine as a more structured clinical and research field, comparable to cancer or diabetes research. Through MitoWorld, he has supported public education, convened expert communities, and promoted the development of research in the field of mitochondrial science.

Mitochondrial research and development Following a personal mitochondrial disease diagnosis, Freedman established MitoWorld, a communication and information hub for the mitochondrial research and clinical communities, supported by a scientific advisory board drawn from institutions including Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Northwestern University, and the University of Cambridge, among others. Freedman also founded MITOS.Global, a distributed collaborative platform supporting cross-disciplinary mitochondrial research projects for laboratories and institutions.

Education Industry From 1996 to 1999, Freedman served as director for business development at the startup of California State University Monterey Bay. Freedman was vice president of Knowledge Exchange, a media publishing company founded by financier Michael Milken in 1994.

Freedman is the managing director of Knowledge Base, LLC, a consulting firm whose clients included Michigan State University, University of California, O'Reilly Media, Capella University, eCollege and WebCT. He helped to build Prometheus, a course management program at George Washington University, of which he was executive vice president from 2000 until 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was the acting CEO of Textcentric.

He co-founded the K-8 Charter, International School of Monterey in 2000, and served on its board until 2007. He was the Vice President of Global Education Strategy for educational technology company Blackboard Inc. from 2005 to 2011. From 2008 to 2011, he was the Blackboard Institute's executive director.

Nonprofit At NLET (since 2011), Freedman is directing a research-and-development nonprofit organized around four program areas: mathematics education and competency-based learning tools, delivered through Just In Time Math; workforce and talent-marketplace infrastructure, including the GoEducate platform; The film won a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Journalism and Writing Freedman became a journalist in Washington, DC. First as a stringer for the Washington Post, then as a Washington Correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and then as a producer for ABC 20/20 and Nightline.

In 1980, he co-wrote Gifts of Deceit, an account of the Koreagate scandal and the committee's investigations, with Robert Boettcher. In 1990, Freedman co-wrote Winter of Fire with Richard O. Collin, which dealt with US Army general James L. Dozier's kidnapping by the Italian terrorist group the Red Brigades.

He contributed to the volume of Virtual Schools: Planning For Success, published by Teachers College Press in 2005. In the book, Freedman discussed the possible applications of technology within a virtual learning environment.

Government Freedman worked on Capitol Hill as a researcher and investigator for five years, beginning with the Senate Watergate Committee while still in college. and he was a staff investigator on the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations during the Koreagate scandal.

Writing and Publication In addition to his policy and media work, Freedman is the author of several nonfiction works. His publications include Gifts of Deceit (1980), which examined Korean influence in American politics, and Winter of Fire (1992), among other essays and commentaries on education and health.

Filmography Year Title Credited as 1999 To Walk with Lions Co-executive producer 1994 Marilyn Monroe: Life After Death Director 1994 Inferno on US 17 Writer 1993 Money for Nothing Executive producer 1992 The Making of 'A Brief History of Time''' Executive producer 1991 A Brief History of Time Executive producer 1990 DEA Executive producer 1990 The Media Show|Self 1988 To Heal a Nation|Co-producer 1988 Baby M|Producer