 From 2004 to 2007 Skinner served as the chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.In 2015-2016 he served on the University of Wisconsin Campus Planning Committee and the Academic Planning Council.Skinner resigned his position as the Director of the Theoretical Chemistry Institute and retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in December 2016, where he currently holds the title of Joseph O. and Elizabeth S. Hirschfelder Professor Emeritus.