Polly Campbell, RN, B.S., B.A.

Polly Campbell, RN, BS, BA, joined the UNE School of Nursing and Population Health in 2019 as Director of the Advanced Nursing Education Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (ANE-SANE) Program, a unique public/private partnership to strengthen the state’s existing, innovative Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE) Program by increasing its reach and impact through simulation and pedagogical training and education. This three-year program is funded through the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.

Polly was Director of the Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE) Program, Maine Office of Child and Family Services, DHHS, for 16 years.  She was responsible for the education, training and technical assistance of Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners (SAFE); technical assistance for SAFEs, health care providers who care for patients who have been sexually assaulted or suffered other forms of interpersonal violence, and Sexual Assault Response Teams; promoting community awareness of interpersonal violence issues including non-fatal strangulation, domestic violence/abuse, commercial trafficking of humans, elder/incapacitated adults, child abuse, and working with community partners to improve the community response for victims of all forms of abuse and violence. 

Polly attended the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention in February 2016, and the Master’s Course in August 2018.  The Institute is a program of Alliance for Hope International.  Since 2016 she has provided over 50 non-fatal strangulation education sessions across the state for law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel, forensic nurses, school nurses, and other health care providers, domestic violence and sexual assault advocates, prosecutors, victim witness advocates, and social workers.  She has testified as an expert in non-fatal strangulation in several Maine criminal trials.

Polly currently sits on the Maine Domestic Violence Homicide Review Panel; Maine Elder Death and Serious Injury Analysis Review Team; Maine Sex Trafficking and Exploitation Network; the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault Child Advocacy Center (CAC) Provider Council; the Androscoggin CAC Multi-Disciplinary Team; is Past-President and board member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) and currently sits on the Association’s Foundation Board.

Prior to her tenure as SAFE Program Director she worked in clinical nursing for over a decade and has spent the last 3+ decades in the field of interpersonal violence and abuse, first at A SAFE Place on Nantucket Island, MA; Family Crisis Services (now Through These Doors) in Portland, ME; and later at the Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine.  In addition to direct service with victims of abuse and violence, she has coordinated statewide education, training and service programs that brought together professionals from various disciplines to better meet the needs of adult and child victims of violence and abuse. 

pcampbell3@une.edu

207.221.4881