Scott Nolan

Scott N. Nolan is a Professor of Practice in American Politics. His courses focus on courts, law, public policy, healthcare, identity politics like race gender and sexuality, as well as statistical methods of political research.

He earned his B.A. in Political Science with Pre-Law Concentration from the University of New Orleans in 2007, his M.A. in 2013, and his Ph.D. in 2019.

From 2001 to 2015, while earning his degrees going to school part-time, he worked in law firms specializing in complex civil litigation, trial, and appellate work in the fields of tortious and personal injury, family law, corporate law, real estate law, and especially medical malpractice and healthcare law.

Since 2002, while earning his degrees, he has worked part-time as a federal Aviation Meteorologist for the U.S. National Weather Service and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration at New Orleans International Airport. And every summer he serves as a Grader for the College Board’s A.P. Exam in the U.S. Government & Politics section.

From 2013 to 2018 he was a Teaching Fellow at the University of New Orleans where he taught courses in American Politics, LGBTQ Politics, and Statistical Methods of Political Research. At UNO he was a finalist for the UNO Student Advocate Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2016 and 2017. He won the UNO Leadership Award for Service to Students [for Pre-Law Advising] in 2018.

He arrived at Tulane as an Adjunct Professor in 2015, was promoted to full-time Visiting Professor in 2018, and promoted again to Professor of Practice in American Politics in 2020.

At Tulane he won the Tulane Student Government’s Award for Student Advising and Mentoring in 2019. He won the Tulane Mortar Board Society’s award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021. He won the Tulane School of Liberal Arts’ April Brayfield Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award in 2022. He won the William Duren Professor Award for Teaching Innovation in 2023. He has been nominated by students, and chosen as a finalist by administration, for the prestigious Weiss Presidential Medal for Excellence in Teaching four times (2019, 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025). He won the Faculty Member of the Year Award at the Tulane Crest Awards in 2025.

He serves as a Tulane First-Year Faculty Fellow – a small but diverse group of faculty that engage with prospective (high school) students and first-semester freshman about academic life at Tulane and in New Orleans via special events with the Offices of Admission and First Year Experience.

He serves on the Tulane NTC Honor Board which administers hearings when students are accused of academic misconduct. He won Faculty Member Honor Board Panelist of the Year in 2022. He also serves on the Tulane NTC Honor Board Appeals Committee.

He serves as the Faculty Advisor for three Tulane student organizations: Pi Sigma Alpha, Tulane’s Political Science Honor Society; the Tulane Mock Trial Club, a club that focus on courtroom / trial simulations and competitions; and Phi Alpha Delta, Tulane’s pre-law society, which allows him to mentor students interested in attending law school.

He serves on the Department of Political Science Undergraduate Curriculum Committee; and on the Tulane NTC Committee on Academic Integrity overseeing the Academic Code of Conduct; and in the Tulane University Senate as Senator-at-Large as well as on the Senate’s Committee for Student Affairs; in the Vice President for Student Affairs’ office as a member of the Campus Civic Engagement Coalition.

He serves as a Faculty Principal in the prestigious Tulane Tenenbaum Scholars Program.

He serves as a Faculty Principal in the prestigious Tulane College Scholars Program.

He serves as a Faculty Principal in the prestigious Tulane College Track Program.

In 2025 he was invited to serve as Affiliate Faculty in the Tulane Department of Gender & Sexuality.

Professor Nolan’s “Path to Law School” annual lecture series is well known across campus for helping hundreds of current and former Tulane students gain acceptance and financial aid at more than 50 top American law schools since 2015.