AASP West Regional Conference

Nadav Goldschmied, PhD

Nadav Goldschmied, PhD, teaches a variety of courses that revolve around social psychology, such as introduction to Social Psychology, Social Psychology Research Methods Lab, the Psychology of Sports, and Psychology of the Law at the University of San Diego. He has an active research program, working with students on various research projects exploring how inequality and disadvantage shape social perceptions of competitors and groups in contention, as well as projects relating to sport psychology. He is also the faculty advisor for the Psychology Department’s Club.  Goldschmied has broad interests in the psychology of inequality, disadvantage, and competitive asymmetries. Within this broad field of exploration, he focuses on zero-sum situations in the realm of the politics, sports and business. In addition, as a former and long-time mediocre basketball player, cantankerous coach, and an always behind-the-deadline sports journalist, Goldschmied concentrates on the intersection of psychology and sport in exploring diverse cognitive and social phenomena such as correlates of superior performance, aggression and fan behavior.  He has published research articles in the Journal of Sports Medicine, The Sport Psychologist, and Basic and Applied Social Psychology and presented his research, together with his undergraduate students, at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) and American Psychological Association (APA) conferences. His work was featured in the New York Times, Slate magazine, and NPR.

Skip Flanagan

Skip Flanagan is a dedicated mental performance coach and educator with a robust background in both athletics and academia. Currently serving as the NTID Athlete Development Program Coordinator at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), he also holds adjunct positions in the LEAD Program, Department of Liberal Studies, and RIT 365’s Year One program. Skip's professional history includes playing professional baseball for the Old Orchard Beach Surge and serving as an NTID Student-Athlete Liaison and Ambassador.

As an academic, Skip has published research on the lived sport experiences of Deaf or Hard of Hearing collegiate athletes. Skip is in the process of creating a research institute within RIT's College of Health Sciences and Technology, specializing in researching deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes locally and nationwide. His educational background includes a Master of Education in Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from RIT. In addition to his academic and athletic achievements, Skip is the owner of Flanagan Performance, a private practice focused on mental performance coaching, and co-founder of the National Deaf Athlete Center and Adaptive Mental Performance Consulting. His service to RIT and NTID spans various roles, including advisor positions, committee memberships, and contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Skip is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Association for Applied Sport Psychology and the American Psychological Association, where he engages in multiple special interest groups. He is also a former certified coaching practitioner with the United States Powerlifting Association and has presented at various conferences, sharing his expertise in athlete development through a blended set of professions.

Dutch Franz, PhD

Dutch is a practicing performance psychologist and one of the original research fellows at the Think2Perform Research Institute. Dutch has been a part of five NCAA Division I National Championships with three different teams in the last seven years.  He has trained numerous All-Americans, Olympians, and professional athletes.  Dutch currently consults for Stanford, UCLA, Colorado State, and the University of Tennessee.

Dutch is also the co-founder of REPS, the industry leader in sports virtual simulation training.    Through REPS, he and his team work with hundreds of high schools and colleges nationwide.   The REPS team trains coaches to establish an immersive high-fidelity VR training environment that integrates performance accelerating best-practices from psychology.  Dr. Dutch has over 30-years of experience training elite performers in virtual environments. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Dutch served as an officer in US Army Special Operations. He lives in Seattle and plays on the glaciated volcanoes above 10,000 ft.

Entrances are available on Magnolia Ave. and Adams St. 

Should you choose Adams St., guests should park on the 4th and 5th floor of the parking structure. If entering off Magnolia Ave., there is guest parking to the right when you enter. Review the campus map to view the exact location of the conference (Innovator's Auditorium). 

As an added help, when arriving on campus, you may tell the attendants at the front that you are there for the Sport & Performance Psychology Conference, and the guards should guide you regardless of what entrance entered.