PhD, Health and Safety, Indiana University, 1987; MLIS, Library and Information Science, Kent State University, 2003; MS, School Health Education, Pennsylvania State University, 1981.

Dr. Olds joined Kent State University in 1988 in the Department of Health Education. His primary public health research interests include substance abuse prevention among adolescents and college students with an emphasis on alcohol and tobacco use. His work focuses on characterizing adolescent and college student tobacco and alcohol use and translating those findings into prevention programs. The role of normative beliefs and objective measures of alcohol use by college students in naturalistic settings have been the centerpiece of his current work. His substance use prevention research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, the Ohio Department of Health, and the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. He has 25 years of public health research and practitioner experience and is actively involved in community assessment and intervention work. Dr. Olds has had over $2.8 million in research funding and has authored 37 articles.