Jeffrey W. Pollard

Adjunct Faculty

Threat Assessment, Psychotherapy, Higher Education Policy, Substance Use/Abuse

Dr. Jeff 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 formerly served as a Psychologist to Mason’s Police Department.

He has taught courses in advanced psychotherapy, addiction, general psychology, statistical analysis, psychology of men, motivation, personality, and group psychotherapy. His publication topics include threat assessment, psychotherapy, campus violence, higher-education policy, stigma in psychotherapy, and offender treatment. He is recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis as a Master Trainer in Threat Assessment.

Among publications on violence prevention, Dr. Pollard co-edited Campus Violence: Kinds, Causes and Cures (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 15-year longitudinal study of student alcohol use advanced understanding of the impact of drinking on academic performance and interpersonal violence.

Recent work includes service on the Virginia Tech Victims Family Outreach Foundation Advisory Council for the 32 National Campus Safety Initiative. He was a subject-matter expert at the U.S. Department of Justice Campus Threat Assessment Summit (COPS Office) and helped develop the national COPS threat-assessment curriculum.

Dr. Pollard has testified before Congress in support of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and for increased federal funding for veterans’ mental health, and advocated for H.R. 838 – Threat Assessment, Prevention and Safety (TAPS) Act.

He has presented nationally on trauma-informed interviewing, violence prevention, and threat management for the APA, ATAP, AUCCCD, ABPP, the Big 10 Threat Assessment Conference, the American College Health Association, the U.S. Department of Education, the Governor of Virginia’s Domestic Violence Advisory Board, and multiple federal agencies.

His forty-year career in higher education includes teaching, consultation with law enforcement, and directing counseling and health centers across campuses of 2,000–34,000 students. He is a past president of both the American Board of Counseling Psychology and the American Academy of Counseling Psychology.

He earned his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Virginia (1978) after completing a Clinical Psychology Residency at Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine.

Major honors include:
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors (2010)
• Emeritus Director Recognition, AUCCCD (2012)
• Leighton Whitaker Memorial Award for Excellence in Counseling Center Scholarship (2016 and 2019)

Current Research

Okada, D. T., & Pollard, J. W. (2021). Community-based threat assessment and higher education. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. https://doi.org/10.1080/87568225.2020.1753609

Ring, M. A., & Pollard, J. W. (2020). Clients who stalk their counselor. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. https://doi.org/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, 6(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. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 33(3).

Grayson, P., & Pollard, J. W. (2018). Leighton Whitaker: An appreciation. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 32(4).

Meloy, J. M., & Pollard, J. W. (2017). Lone-actor terrorism and impulsivity. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 62(2).

Perloe, A., & Pollard, J. W. (2016). University counseling centers’ role in campus threat assessment and management. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, 3(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? Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 29(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(4).

Courses Taught

CRIM - 595/490: Threat Assessment - The Path to Violence

PSYC - 999: Dissertation Committee

PSYC - 892/592: Threat Assessment

PSYC - 881: Advanced Practicum in Clinical Psychology

PSYC - 799: Master’s Thesis Committee

Education

PhD - University of Virginia

MS - Old Dominion University

BS - Old Dominion University

Recent Presentations

Nolan, J., Van Horn, D., & Pollard, J. W. (2017–2019). 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 Association of 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 and 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 Convention, Washington, DC.