Dr. Dave Kolar has been named as the new head women's golf coach at the University of Mary Washington, according to Interim Director of Athletics Patrick Catullo. 

"We are proud to announce the addition of Dr. Dave Kolar to the athletic department staff as head women's golf coach for the 2019-20 season. Dr. Kolar has long been known as one of the most giving professors on campus, and combined with his experience, will make a great fit for our staff."

Dr. Kolar's earned a Ph.D. (1995) in Social/Personality Psychology from the University of California, Riverside, after receiving a M.A. (1993) in Psychology from the University of California, Riverside and a B.A. (1989) in Psychology from San Diego State University. His research interests include social perception, accuracy in personality judgment, applying psychological principles to environmental behavior, and mentoring at-risk children.

He has presented his work at numerous professional conferences and his research on social perception and mentoring at-risk children has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Personality, and Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning. In addition, Dr. Kolar served as the assessment and evaluation coordinator on 3-year, $475,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education and co-authored a 3-year, $300,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"I really enjoying working with small groups of students and get to know them much better than most of my students and I think coaching the Women's golf team will be similar", said Kolar. "In terms of golfing, I love golf and have been golfing for over 40 years. So I am excited to coach the women's golf team because it will allow me to combine two that things that I love to do: work with students and play golf."