Suicide Prevention & Clinical Leadership

Nicole P. Nolan, MPP, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than a decade of experience leading suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention efforts at the individual, school, community, and national levels. Her work centers on responding to traumatic loss with compassion, structure, and evidence-based practice, while strengthening systems to prevent suicide through early identification, education, and connection.

Nicole is the Owner and Founder of Whole Peace Counseling, where she maintains a clinical practice specializing in children, families, grief and bereavement, and suicide intervention. In addition to direct client care, she provides consultation and training to clinicians, schools, and organizations on suicide risk assessment, safety planning, and youth suicide prevention protocols. Her clinical approach is trauma-informed, strengths-based, and grounded in the belief that suicide prevention begins with understanding, regulation, and human connection.

Previously, Nicole served as Director of Adolescent Suicide Prevention Programming and Grants at the Mental Health Association of Monmouth County, where she led county-wide and school-based suicide prevention initiatives. In this role, she was responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating comprehensive prevention, intervention, and postvention models. She worked directly with schools, community agencies, and individuals following traumatic loss, providing immediate response, consultation, and guidance to help communities stabilize, grieve, and move forward safely after suicide-related events. Her leadership emphasized coordinated response, reduced stigma, and sustainable prevention practices.

Nicole has extensive experience responding to schools and communities in the aftermath of traumatic loss, including suicide deaths and crises involving high-risk youth. She has supported administrators, educators, families, and students through crisis response planning, staff and parent education, and developmentally appropriate postvention strategies that prioritize emotional safety and minimize contagion risk. Together with community leaders, Nicole helped create several Competent Caring Communities in the wake of tragedy to help bring together a common goal of saving lives.

At the national level, Nicole held additional non-profit leadership roles, where she played a key role in implementing suicide prevention programming across the United States. She helped lead the rollout of evidence-based initiatives in states including Georgia, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey, and beyond, working with state agencies, school districts, and organizations funded through federal suicide prevention grants. Her work included program management, training delivery, partnership development, and ensuring fidelity to best practices in youth suicide prevention.

Nicole is a contributor to the Lifelines Suicide Prevention Program, published by Hazelden, and has been involved in curriculum development, training content, and program updates used nationally in school settings. Additionally, Nicole has co-authored several peer reviewed and published articles regarding program efficacy. She has written and been awarded multiple grants to support suicide prevention, resilience-building, and youth mental health initiatives, and has launched new programs designed to close gaps in services for at-risk populations.

Nicole holds a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Policy from Monmouth University and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Rutgers University. She is licensed in New Jersey as a Clinical Social Worker and School Social Worker and serves as a clinical supervisor for emerging professionals. Across all roles, her work reflects a deep commitment to ethical practice, trauma-responsive leadership, and the belief that suicide prevention is most effective when communities are informed, prepared, and supported long before a crisis occurs.