Rick Olshak is a Senior Consultant at TNG with more than 35 years of experience in civil rights compliance. His expertise spans Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, ADA, Section 504, student conduct, and conflict resolution. A past president of the Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA), formerly the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA), he is widely recognized as a trusted leader in the field of student conduct administration. 

Drawing on his leadership in Title IX and student conduct at both campus and system levels, Olshak brings depth and perspective to his training, consulting, and interim management engagements. He also specializes in investigations, with a focus on civil rights matters and student organizations. Olshak has mediated in court, community, and campus settings, trained mediators nationwide, and developed three institutional codes of conduct from scratch. His work is rooted in fairness, accessibility, and process integrity, with a structured approach that builds essential skills at every stage. He is especially known for applying Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods to Title IX and student conduct matters, including mediation, facilitation, restorative practices, and program assessments. 

Olshak has written extensively on conflict resolution, mediation, program development, and assessment, and his work includes ATIXA whitepapers. Notably, he has written “Utilizing Needs Assessment and Deliberative Planning to Enhance Conflict Systems Development” in Reframing Campus Conflict: Student Conduct Practice Through a Social Justice Lens and Mastering Mediation: A Guide to Training Mediators in a College and University Setting. Additionally, he authored A Guide for Effective Sanctioning: From Theory to Practice, a practical resource distributed by the ASCA. 

Before joining TNG, Olshak served as Director of Title IX and Student Conduct Compliance for The Texas A&M University System. He supported eleven universities, eight state agencies, and system offices, including the Texas Division of Emergency Management. In this role, he ensured compliance with federal and state laws, provided training and resources to civil rights personnel, and directed the civil rights compliance review process in coordination with the Office of General Counsel. He also served as a hearing officer, appellate official, investigator, and compliance reviewer, and taught as an adjunct faculty member at the Texas A&M University School of Law. He has also served as a faculty member for ASCA’s Gehring Academy and as a Commission and Committee Member for the College Student Educators International (ACPA). 

Previously, he was the Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Dispute Resolution Services at Illinois State University, Assistant Director of Residential Programs for Judicial Services at SUNY Cortland, and Coordinator of Student Judicial Services at Georgetown University. 

Olshak holds an M.S. in College Student Personnel from Western Illinois University and a B.A. in Public Communication from The College of Saint Rose.  

Olshak holds multiple certifications, including social justice training, advanced and basic mediation, alcohol education, and management from organizations such as the Alliance for Change and the American Management Association. 

Originally from Albany, New York, he currently lives in Los Angeles, California.