Elizabeth Schmidt
Elizabeth Schmidt is Professor of Practice in the School of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She teaches in the areas of Nonprofit Law and Management and Social and Environmental Enterprises. Previous teaching positions have been at George Mason University, Vermont Law School, and William and Mary Law School. She was also the Director of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at George Mason.
Schmidt has also been a corporate litigator, legal counsel for GuideStar, a manager of educational outreach at Colonial Williamsburg, and a management consultant for nonprofit organizations. At both Colonial Williamsburg and GuideStar, she developed mission-related and revenue-producing programs. As a management consultant, she wrote strategic plans, helped organizations improve governance, guided organizations through transitions, and led seminars on legal and managerial issues facing nonprofits. She also authored several community assessments and helped communities determine how best to meet their goals.
Professor Schmidt has authored articles related to nonprofit governance, accountability, policies, and ethics, as well as a casebook on nonprofit law, Nonprofit Law: The Life Cycle of a Charitable Organization. She has also written about the emerging area of social enterprise.
Professor Schmidt received an A.B., magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and a J.D. from Stanford University, where she was a Note Editor for the Stanford Law Review.