Jeff Pollard

Dr. Pollard is a co-founder of Mason's Threat Assessment Team, former Executive Director of Counseling and Psychological Services, Professor of Psychology, and threat management consultant. He is currently Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society where he teaches threat assessment. He formally served as a Psychologist to Mason's Police Department. He has taught courses in advanced psychotherapy, addiction, general psychology, statistical analysis, the psychology of men, motivation, personality, and group psychotherapy. His publication topics include threat assessment, psychotherapy, campus violence, higher education policies, stigma in psychotherapy, and offender treatment among other topics. He is recognized by the US DHS Office of Intelligence & Analysis as a Master Trainer in Threat Assessment.

Among publications on violence prevention, Dr. Pollard coedited Campus Violence: Kinds Causes and Cures published in 1993 and more recently co-authored University Counseling Centers’ Role in Campus Threat Assessment and Management in The Journal of Threat Assessment and Management. His research on student alcohol use included a 15-year longitudinal study that furthered understanding of the impact of drinking on academic performance and interpersonal violence. Dr. Pollard's recent projects include the Virginia Tech Victims Family Outreach Foundation where he served as a member of the Advisory Council for the 32 National Campus Safety Initiative. He was an invited subject matter expert at the Campus Threat Assessment Summit sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and assisted in developing the curriculum for national campus threat assessment training sponsored by COPS. He has testified before the United States congress in support of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as well as for increased federal resources dedicated to the mental health of returning veterans. He has advocated in Congress for H.R. 838, the Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety (TAPS) Act.

He has presented on Trauma Informed Interviewing for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and on violence prevention and threat management at the American Psychological Association, national and regional meetings of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, the National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the American College Health Association, the American Board of Professional Psychology, the American College Personnel Association, the Big 10 Threat Assessment Conference, the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Governor of Virginia's Domestic Violence Prevention & Response Advisory Board Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

Dr. Pollard’s fortty years in higher education include teaching, serving in academic departments, consulting with law enforcement, and directing counseling & health centers on secular and non-secular campuses with enrollments ranging from 2,100 to 34,000 students. He is past president of the American Board of Counseling Psychology and the American Academy of Counseling Psychology. His Ph.D. from the University of Virginia included a Clinical Psychology Residency at Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine. In 2010, the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2012 recognized him as an Emeritus Counseling Center Director. He is AUCCCD’s 2016 and 2019 recipient of the Excellence in Counseling Center Scholarship Award.

Current Research

• Okada, D.T., & Pollard, J.W. (2021) Community-Based Threat Assessment and Higher Education, Journal of College Student Psychotherapy (JCSP), DOI: 10.1080/87568225.2020.1753609
• Ring, M.A. & Pollard, J.W. (2020) Clients Who Stalk Their Counselor, JCSP, DOI: 10.1080/87568225.2020.1737613
• Briggs, T.W., Pollard, J.W. (2019) Computational Modeling of Mass Violence: Applications for Threat Assessment and Management, Journal of Threat Assessment and Management (JTAM), 6, nos. 3&4.
• Pollard, J.W., Disabato, D.J., Polychronis, P.D., & Scalora, M.J., (2019). Counseling Center Clinicians Experience Providing Assessments of Risk to Self versus Risk to Others, (JCSP), 33, no. 3.
• Grayson, P. Pollard, J.W. (2018). Leighton Whitaker: An appreciation, JCSP, 32, no. 4.
• Meloy, J.M., Pollard, J.W. (2017). Lone Actor Terrorism and Impulsivity, Journal of Forensic Sciences, 62, no. 2.
• Perloe, A., Pollard, J.W. (2016). University Counseling Centers’ Role in Campus Threat Assessment and Management. JTAM, 3, no. 1.
• Pollard, J.W., Flynn, C., & Eells, G. (2015). The Role of Threat Assessment and Management in College Counseling Centers: How’s that net working? JCSP, 29, no. 4.
• Kendra, M., Mohr, J., & Pollard, J.W. (2014). The Stigma of Having Psychological Problems: Relations with Engagement, Working Alliance and Depression in Psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 51, no. 4.

Education

• PhD - University of Virginia
• MS - Old Dominion University
• BS - Old Dominion University

Recent Presentations

• Nolan, J., Van Horn, D., & Pollard, J.W, (2017-19) Trauma Informed Interviewing, Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, various sites, VA.
• Pollard, J.W., Prieto-Welch, S. & Ross, J.S., (2018) Counselor Safety: Risk, Self-Care and Ethics when Clients are Potentially Dangerous, 67th University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) meeting, New Orleans, LA.
• Pollard, J.W., (2018) Emerging Trends in Targeted Violence and Threat Assessment, College and University Police and Investigators Conference (CUPIC), Fairfax, VA.
• Pollard, J.W., (2018) United States Government Threat Assessment Model. Keynote National Security Psychology Symposium, National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Chantilly, VA.
• Pollard, J.W., (2017) Campus Assessments of Potential Terrorism Lone Actors: Practical and Ethical Considerations for Counseling Centers. 66th AUCCCD meeting, Denver, CO.
• Pollard, J.W., (2017) Systematic Intervention to Reduce Sexual Violence on Campus: Integrating Campus Threat Assessment and Title IX/VAWA Investigations. 125th American Psychological Association (APA) Convention, Washington, DC