Professor David Olds has devoted his career to investigating methods of preventing health and developmental problems in children and parents from low-income families. The primary focus of his work has been on developing and testing a program of prenatal and infancy home visiting for low-income mothers bearing first children, known as the Nurse Family Partnership. Professor Olds has received numerous awards for his work, including the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health, an Honorary Professorship at the Warwick Medical School in Coventry, England, and the 2008 Stockholm Prize in Criminology.

Professor Olds directs the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He obtained his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. from Cornell University.