[2] Poskanzer has served as a commissioner of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and on the boards of directors for Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, the Mohonk Mountain House, the Mohonk Preserve, and St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital.

Poskanzer began his academic career as a lawyer in the general counsel's office at the University of Pennsylvania, and his research activities have included academic freedom and other issues of higher education law.

His book entitled Higher Education Law: the Faculty was published in 2002 by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

[3][4] He graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1980, with a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a concentration in African studies; he went on to earn his J.D.

Poskanzer officially left his role as president in July 2021, and plans to return as a professor of political science.