Nolan is a graduate of Clark University where he received his BA in History with minors in Psychology and Education. He taught American History for a year at University City High School (St. Louis) after a semester in Boston College’s Master’s in Counseling Psychology program. He did his master’s in social work at The George Warren Brown School of Social work at Washington University in St. Louis. His concentration was social Planning and social policy with a focus on prevention practices. He Attended the University of Pennsylvania for his first attempt at a Doctorate in public Policy analysis, however after a semester he went to be a community organizer at Mass Fair Shar in Boston, where he worked to reform voter registration laws. This effort resulted in 75,000 new registered voters in Boston and the eventual election of a long run of progressive Boston Mayors. He began as a faculty /administrator at the School of Human Services at Southern New Hampshire University (Nee New Hampshire College) and restarted his work for a DSW at Boston College, again focusing on Social Policy and Social Planning. After five years he left SNHU to seek work as a policy person in Maine but started a career as a clinician with Community Health and counseling services until he received his LCSW and went to work for Bowdoin College as a Clinician and advisor to diverse student organizations. It was this experience that prompted him to do work at the University of Southern Maine as Coordinator of Community and Employee Outreach in the Office of Campus Diversity and Equity, where he was responsible for recruiting, hiring and retaining a diverse faculty and staff and later all employees. He became the University’s Ombudsman as part of his retention duties, but it was for the whole of the university as well. He started and directed the school’s alternative dispute resolution program to help in this endeavor. He later left to start his practice as a private psychotherapist with offices in Portland and Windham Maine.  He retired in March of 2020, but continued to work at various restaurants indulging in his love of cooking. He moved to Readfield Maine and found that after 35 years he was finally in a situation where he could begin to do policy work with and for various social justice organization as he was just 8 miles from The Maine Statehouse. After two years of such efforts, he has left retirement to join AmeriCorps/Vista to help increase the capacity of the University of Maine at Agusta’s New Ventures Program, whose mission is to increase the financial knowledge and academic success of low-income members of Kennebec County and its surrounding communities.