Elizabeth Schmidt

Elizabeth (Betsy) Schmidt is a professor of practice at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She specializes in nonprofits, social enterprises, and solutions-based policy analysis. She currently teaches two graduate school courses, Nonprofit Law and Management and Social and Environmental Enterprises, and two undergraduate courses, Making a Difference: Policies and Strategies for Successful Social Change and Catalyzing Change: Creating and Operating a Nonprofit. She is also the author of Nonprofit Law: The Life Cycle of a Charitable Organization, 3rd ed. (forthcoming 2021).

She has also taught at George Mason University, Vermont Law School, William and Mary Law School, and Marlboro College’s MBA for Sustainability program.  Betsy writes in the areas of nonprofit governance, accountability, policies, and ethics. She also writes about the legal framework for social enterprises.

In addition to academic positions, Betsy has practiced law, consulted with nonprofits, and worked directly for nonprofit organizations in legal and management capacities.