Ann Franke provides advice and consulting services to colleges and universities across the U.S. With three decades of experience in higher education law, she offers solutions that are informed, practical, and cost effective. Through her firm Wise Results LLC, her consulting engagements have included: protection of minors, Title IX, faculty handbook development, tenured faculty dismissals, risk management, and organizational development. She has also served as an expert witness. In 2013 Ms. Franke founded the Youth Protection Network for Higher Education on a pro bono basis. The Network now has 250 members and is evolving into a more formal association.
Ms. Franke spends a week every summer playing her cello at an adult chamber music camp held at a small liberal arts college. She stays honest as a university law practitioner by sleeping in an un-air conditioned dorm room on a thin mattress, using a shared bathroom, and eating cafeteria food.
Ms. Franke is a NACUA Fellow and in 2011 received an award for creativity in higher education risk management from the Stetson University College of Law. She previously held senior positions with United Educators and the American Association of University Professors. At AAUP she received tenure. Ms. Franke won a Fulbright senior scholar award to study the development of private higher education in Australia. She earned her BA, MA, and JD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and an LLM from Georgetown University. NACUA is an essential part of her professional life.
Scott Z. Goldschmidt is Associate General Counsel at The Catholic University of America. Scott advises the University on a broad range of legal matters, but focuses on contract development and review, labor and employment matters, athletics, student affairs, Title IX, policy development, compliance, and litigation management. Prior to joining the University, he worked as a law clerk for the U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel, was a research assistant for the Fifth Edition of The Law of Higher Education by William Kaplin and Barbara Lee, and served a City Year corps member in a Washington, D.C. public school. Scott holds a B.A. in Political Science, magna cum laude, from The George Washington University, and a J.D., cum laude, from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law where he was Lead Articles Editor on the Law Review.
Gary Langsdale serves as University Risk Officer for The Pennsylvania State University, a position he has held since 2003, with portfolio responsibility for “Enterprise Risk Management” including such areas as operational, hazard, strategic and other risks; he also serves as President of the University’s captive insurance subsidiary, Nittany Insurance Company. Previously, he was Director of Risk Management at International Paper Company, which was at the time a Fortune-60 corporation with manufacturing facilities in 55 countries. Gary has forty years of experience in the insurance and risk management field, has been a guest lecturer on Enterprise Risk Management for several undergraduate and graduate courses at Penn State, and has authored or edited articles for trade publications such as Financial Executive, Risk Management, and Treasury Management magazines, co-authored three white papers for the University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA), and participated in the development of the ASME standard on risk assessment in higher education. In 2009, he was recognized by Business Insurance magazine as a member of its “Risk Management Honor Roll”, and in 2014, he was recognized by URMIA as a “Distinguished Risk Manager”, the Association’s highest honor.
Gary earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Allegheny College, and holds the Associate in Risk Management professional designation. In addition to his duties at Penn State, Gary serves on the boards of the Mid-Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Juniata Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America; he is also an advisor to Penn State’s University Park Campus chapter of Alpha Phi Omega (a national service fraternity).
His hobbies are saying “no” to his children and “yes” to his grandchildren.