Evidence-Based Wellness Programs for Public Safety
About Us
About the Founder/Director of the National Public Safety Wellness Program: Dr. Robin Inwald
A police and public safety psychologist with over 35 years of experience in stress/resiliency evaluation and training developed the National Public Safety Wellness Program in 2019. See below for a summary of Dr. Inwald's background and relevant qualifications.
About National Public Safety Wellness Program's (NPSWP) Feedback Coaches, Consulting Psychologists, Counselors
Our NPSWP feedback network includes coaches, consulting psychologists, licensed counselors, and member organizations with experience working with police and/or public safety personnel. They also have been trained in the interpretation and analysis of NPSWP surveys.
About The FOUNDER...
Robin Inwald, Ph.D., ABPP, ABAP
- Dr. Robin Inwald wrote the first comprehensive personality inventory (Inwald Personality Inventory-IPI-1979) and first Law Enforcement Personal History Questionnaire (LEPHQ-1978) designed and validated for public safety officer selection using public safety norms and behavioral data items. By 2009, the IPI had been used in thousands of police/public safety organizations worldwide. The developer of over 50 tests and surveys, Dr. Inwald also authored the first comprehensive personality inventory for law enforcement "fitness-for-duty" (HCSI-1986), the first "psychological job analysis" designed to focus on personality variables (HJAQ-1990), the first broad-based behavioral inventory designed for adolescents (HAP-1984), and the first validated all-purpose inventory for measuring "emotional intelligence" (Hilson Personnel Profile/Success Quotient-HPP/SQ-1988).
- The founder and director of Hilson Research, Inc., Dr. Inwald conducted or supervised over 30,000 candidate screenings and hundreds of test & procedure validation projects for over 30 years. This included the first published five-year longitudinal prediction study for public safety officers (employing cross-validation and discriminant function equation prediction of officer termination and other work-related behaviors-1988).
- From 1978-2009, prior to the advent of social media, Dr. Inwald developed a phone and convention-based network of over 2,000 psychologists and administrators working in the public safety field. She realized the need for guidelines in this field and authored the first two written sets of guidelines for conducting pre-employment screening programs (1984) and "fitness-for-duty" evaluations (1986) in police/public safety agencies. Her independent surveys and research led to these being the first guidelines to be amended and adapted by IACP's Police Psychological Services Section and the field at large.
- As the first full-time police/public safety psychologist to be granted Diplomate status by the American Board of Forensic Psychology (ABFP) and American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), Dr. Inwald holds other diplomates from the American Board of Assessment Psychology (ABAP), the Society for Police & Criminal Psychology (SPCP), and the American Board of Police & Public Safety Psychology (now ABPP). During her career, she has authored several books (including ABCs for Inner Strength & Well-Being) and book chapters, and hundreds of published articles and/or professional presentations. An American Psychological Association Fellow, Dr. Inwald received her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University.
- Recognized as a pioneer in her field, Dr. Inwald received the “Distinguished Award for Outstanding Scientific Research in the field of Police & Public Safety Psychology” from the American Psychological Association’s Police & Public Safety Section of the Division of Psychologists in Public Service (2010).
- She also received the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) “Scholarship Award” from the IACP Police & Public Safety Section in 2012, recognizing an individual “who has made a significant contribution through creative intellectual work to advance the field of police psychology.”
- In 2017, Dr. Inwald was co-recipient of the Davis Award from the Society for Police & Criminal Psychology (SPCP) for “Best data-driven presentation-Screening Profiles & Vicarious Trauma of First Responders, Police, Chiefs, and Firefighters.”
- In 2019, she founded and developed the National Public Safety Wellness Program, a comprehensive evidence-based training and evaluation program for public safety organizations .
- In 2020, Dr. Inwald received the IACP Leadership Award in the field of Police & Public Safety Psychology and the New York State Psychological Association’s (NYSPA) Lifetime Achievement Award.