Gottschall was one of the original founders of NHS in 1975, and has been the executive director since NHS's inception. Mr. Gottschall's expertise in the fields of housing and community development has led to his appointment to a number of committees and commissions including: Chicago's Affordable Housing Task Force, co-chair of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation's Campaign for Home Ownership, the National Insurance Task Force, The Federal Home Loan Bank's Advisory Council, and Mayor Daley's Blue Ribbon Committee on Abandoned Property.
Mr. Gottschall received a B.A. in Sociology and Economics from Dartmouth College and an M.A. in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. Mr. Gottschall also served in the United States Peace Corps in Lima, Peru. Additionally, he received the Bank of America Chicago 2000 Community Leadership Award, the Tom Gobby Community Leadership Award, and the Friend of the Neighborhoods Award 2000 from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.
Mr. Gottschall spent September 2004 through September 2005 as a James A. Johnson Community fellow which recognizes and rewards leading urban and rural affordable-housing and community-development professionals. Selected for this honor by the Fannie Mae Foundation, Mr. Gottschall spent his fellowship year studying nonprofit and business partnerships. In 2003, Mr. Gottschall established NHS's Home Ownership Preservation Initiative (HOPI) as a model to prevent foreclosure that is now being replicated nationally.