photo by: Dmitry Martirosov/Journal-World

U.S. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling, right, during a visit to the KU Innovation Park in Lawrence on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling spent Friday morning touring KU Innovation Park in Lawrence to see how job creation locally could be boosted and replicated across the country.

Sonderling was at Innovation Park’s main facility on Becker Drive, along with University of Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod, Provost Arash Mafi and Adam Courtney, chief executive officer and board president of KU Innovation Park.

“You see in a lot of these larger universities, especially in college towns, like here, is that so many of the students have these amazing ideas and then they leave the community they went to school in,” Sonderling told the Journal-World on Friday.

He said an economic hub like KU Innovation Park, being in such close proximity to KU, will allow students to jumpstart their careers and enhance private sector innovation.

“Having a facility like this, with these labs, with these office spaces, with these conference rooms to be able to help them build that infrastructure, will not only create jobs here, but also create a pipeline for them to get very skilled students who are innovating the next biomedical products (and) cyber security products,” Sonderling said. Cybersecurity and biomedical innovation are among the industries KU Innovation Park is targeting.

Sonderling on Friday also said his department is taking a host of initiatives to combat what many have described as an affordability crisis, especially among younger generations. Making education more affordable, regulating employer healthcare plans and expanding opportunities are some steps he said they are taking.

photo by: Dmitry Martirosov/Journal-World

Sonderling, left, and Adam Courtney during a visit to the KU Innovation Park in Lawrence on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. Courtney is the CEO and board president of the innovation park.

KU Innovation Park is a nonprofit business incubator on KU’s West Campus with a combined footprint of more than 120,000 square feet. It includes lab spaces, office spaces and other collaborative areas.

Development started more than 20 years ago with the creation of the Lawrence-Douglas County Biosciences Authority in 2005. It continued a few years later with the construction of the Bioscience and Technology Business Center.

Over the 14-year period ending in 2036, KU Innovation Park is projecting to add more than 4,000 jobs with an annual payroll of $266 million. Its final footprint is projected at 800,000 square feet across 10 buildings. Total economic output is expected to reach $1.7 billion, with a cumulative output of more than $11 billion.

Sonderling has made similar stops to the one he made Friday in recent weeks, both at large companies and other universities, including the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Southern California. He said a big part of the Department of Labor is to work within the education system and make sure it aligns with the private sector.

“We just really want to make sure that workers have skills,” he said.