Patrick Tolan is the director of the Center for Positive Youth Development as well as professor of education at the Curry School of Education, both at the University of Virginia. Dr. Tolan is a principal investigator in the Families and Communities Research Group an internationally recognized authority on violence, adolescence, families, and prevention. He has an extensive background in education, publishing and research and is author or co-author of more than 80 books, monographs, chapters, articles and technical reports.

He earned a doctoral degree from the University of Tennessee and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago in Clinical Research on Adolescence. He is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Certified School Psychologist in Illinois and an AAMFT-certified supervisor for family therapy training.