Scott Poland

Scott Poland is a licensed psychologist known for his work on suicide risk prevention and school safety. At Nova Southeastern University in Florida, he is a Professor in the College of Psychology, as well as the Co-Director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office.

Education Poland begin his education at Arizona State University where he received a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. James Treloar was his advisor there. His thesis entitled The effects of cognitive behavior modification on the math achievement of reflective and impulsive second grade students explored the effectiveness of different tutoring procedures and the effect that students' cognitive styles would have on the success.

Career Following the death of his father, Poland was motivated to pursue work in counseling and psychology.

Poland started at Nova Southeastern University in 2005 under the title of School Psychology Program Administrator/Core Faculty. As of 2024, Poland is still employed at Nova Southeastern University in Florida as full-time faculty in the Department of Clinical and School Psychology. Some of the programs he offers are Student Responsibility and Decision-Making Presentation for Adolescents; Bullying and Suicide: Keys to Prevention and Resiliency; School Crisis and Liability; and Parenting in a Challenging World. By focusing on suicide within the context of school, he created a different framework to addressing rising trends and school-student safety as a whole. A large portion of youth's time is accounted for when they are placed in the context of school. In the context of school, vulnerable times of the year, youth-adult relationships, mental health, and more are considered. His research emphasizes the importance of school staff, parents, and youth have in risk prevention.

Poland's research has provided him the opportunity to be a speaker, educating school staff, parents, and youth. His research provides schools with action items to assist with risk prevention and safety. Poland has traveled to various states throughout the country, consulting and training on risk prevention in schools. Some of his biggest publications were the Suicide Safer Schools Plan for the state of Texas and the Crisis Action Toolkit-Suicide for the state of Montana.

Books

Poland, Scott (1989). Suicide intervention in the schools. The Guilford school practitioner series. New York: Guilford Press. Erbacher, Terri A.; Singer, Jonathan B.; Poland, Scott (2015). Suicide in schools: a practitioner's guide to multi-level prevention, assessment, intervention, and postvention. School-based practice in action series. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Poland, Scott; Ferguson, Sara (2021). Lessons learned from school shootings: perspectives from the United States of America. SpringerBriefs in psychology. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Poland, Ferguson, Scott, Sara (January 8, 2025). School Crisis Intervention: An Essential Guide for Practitioners. Guildford Practical. This is not an exhaustive list of books by Scott Poland. Additionally, he has authored various chapters and articles.