Dr. Vince Van Hasselt Named Nova Southeastern University’s 2015 Distinguished Professor of the Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(L to R) NSU Pres. & CEO Dr. George Hanbury; Vince Van Hasselt, Ph.D.,; NSU Exec. VP & Provost Ralph V. Rogers, Jr., Ph.D.

FORT LAUDERDALE-DAVIE, Fla. – Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is proud to announce that Vince Van Hasselt, Ph.D., has been named the 2014-15 Distinguished Professor of the Year. Dr. Van Hasselt was honored by NSU’s President and CEO Dr. George Hanbury and NSU’s Executive Vice President and Provost Ralph V. Rogers, Jr., Ph.D.

Having served as NSU professor since 1992, Dr. Van Hasselt is Professor and Director of the Family Violence and Adolescent Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Programs in the Psychology Services Center. His area of specialization is police psychology, focusing on the challenges and problems of emergency first responders.

Much of Dr. Van Hasselt’s research has involved collaborations with the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation and Behavioral Science Units.  He is co-developer of the FBI’s Global Hostage-Taking Research and Analysis Project (GHosT-RAP), which is studying the motivations and tactics of hostage takers internationally.  He is also currently involved in the development of the Long-Term Evaders (LOTES) Project with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of U.S. Marshals Service.  The goal of this endeavor is to determine strategies utilized by criminals who have effectively managed to evade apprehension for extended periods of time.  In addition, Dr. Van Hasselt currently serves as Editor-In-Chief for “Aggression and Violent Behavior:  A Review Journal”, and “Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.”  For 25 years he served as Editor of the “Journal of Family Violence”.

Dr. Van Hasselt served as a part-time police officer with The City of Plantation Police Department for nearly 20 years in order to advance collaborative research, teaching, and service.  In this capacity, he is a member of the Field Force Unit.  Most notably, he co-founded the Department’s Crisis Response Team (CRT), and continues with the unit in the role of Training Coordinator and Team Member.  Because of his extensive work with CRT, Dr. Van Hasselt was recently given the Distinguished Service Award, one of the highest commendations given by the Plantation Police Department.

“My job here is to provide opportunities to students – they need to get experience outside the classroom,” said Van Hasselt, who credits his students for recently developing and delivering a two-hour behavioral health training program to more than 250 Broward County fire-rescue workers in addition to 911 dispatchers. “I tell students if you’re going to be a police psychologist, you have to know what’s out there. You have to understand what they deal with…the stress of homicides, sex crimes, family violence, child abuse, the worst kind of incidents. It’s tough. This work is not for everybody.”

Dr. Van Hasselt is also the Team Psychologist for the Hostage Negotiation Unit of the FBI Miami Field Office, and the FBI National Crisis Prevention and Intervention Program.  As a Team Psychologist for the latter, he has assisted in dealing with numerous critical incidents involving Bureau personnel. This included the space shuttle Challenger disaster where he was part of the crisis response team led by the FBI.  He also provided critical incident debriefings and counseling to FBI and other law enforcement personnel who were involved in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and the subsequent Anthrax case in Boca Raton.

Dr. Van Hasselt is an instructor for Broward County’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) that provides advanced training to police personnel in dealing with the mentally ill.  He has been involved in CIT since its inception nearly a decade ago.  Dr. Van Hasselt has received numerous commendations and letters/certificates of appreciation from law enforcement agencies over the years for his teaching and training activities. Of importance is his high level of inclusion of students in the training and research.

Dr. Van Hasselt has been involved in numerous teaching activities at NSU, including psychology courses in the clinical psychology and mental health counseling programs and training and supervision in psychological assessment and treatment strategies of students in his clinics (Family Violence and Adolescent Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment programs.) In addition, Dr. Van Hasselt provided assistance in the development of the NSU Criminal Justice Institute (CJI), one of the first sustainable cross disciplinary programs at NSU. As such, he was one of the original online format instructors. He developed the core course (Social Administration in Criminal Justice), and the Behavioral Science Track offered by CPS in that program.  Dr. Van Hasselt has been an Instructor at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, the Broward County Police Academy, and CJI’s Executive Leadership Program for law enforcement.  He has also provided training to police hostage negotiators and crisis responders for many years.

If ever anyone has exemplified a “One NSU” perspective, it’s been Dr. Van Hasselt. He has brought recognition to NSU and its faculty and students from the local, state and national community. It’s clear that Dr. Van Hasselt is truly deserving of this prestigious honor.

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 About Nova Southeastern University (NSU): Located in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is a dynamic research institution dedicated to providing high-quality educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional degree levels. A private, not-for-profit institution with more than 24,000 students, NSU has campuses in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Miramar, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Tampa, Florida, as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico, while maintaining a presence online globally. For more than 50 years, NSU has been awarding degrees in a wide range of fields, while fostering groundbreaking research and an impactful commitment to community. Classified as a research university with “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, NSU is 1 of only 37 universities nationwide to also be awarded Carnegie’s Community Engagement Classification, and is also the  largest private, not-for-profit institution in the United States that meets the U.S. Department of Education’s criteria as a Hispanic-serving Institution. Please visit www.nova.edu for more information.

November 2, 2015

Joe Donzelli | Office of Public Affairs
954-262-2159 (office) | 954-661-4571 (cell)
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