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P and health economist have been elected into the National Academy of Medicine—one of the top honors in the field of health and medicine.

Membership in the academy “recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health,” the NAM.

President Beilock is a renowned cognitive scientist known for her contributions to the understanding of performance under pressure. Colla—the Susan J. and Richard M. Levy Distinguished Professor at —studies how to improve the quality, accessibility, and cost of health care systems. 

Beilock and Colla are among 90 American and 10 international inductees elected to the academy this year by the organization’s current members. They join more than 2,500 top scholars, innovators, and leaders who have received this distinction since the academy was founded in 1970. 

“I am grateful to the academy for their profound vote of confidence in the value of my research,” says Beilock, who is also a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “And I am especially proud to join an intellectual community committed to putting rigorous scientific research into practice that improves the health and wellness of individuals and our society.”

Colla—whose research on value-driven health care aims to align physician payment and delivery system reforms with better patient outcomes and lower costs—says she is “deeply honored by the recognition” from the academy.

“This affirmation of my research and policy efforts bridging academic insights with real-world impact is humbling and highlights the important work we are doing at ���㽶��Ƶ to help shape the future of health care delivery and financing,” Colla says.

“I came to ���㽶��Ƶ as a junior faculty member and this recognition is only possible because of the invaluable mentorship and support I’ve received from the community at ���㽶��Ƶ and Geisel, including Joanne Conroy ’77, Jonathan Skinner, and Elliott Fisher,” she says. , the president and CEO of ���㽶��Ƶ Health, Skinner, a professor at TDI and research professor in economics, and Fisher, a professor of health policy at TDI, are also members of NAM.

“The recognition of President Beilock and Professor Carrie Colla by one of the most prestigious institutions in health and medicine underscores ���㽶��Ƶ’s commitment to advancing research, policy, and education that improves lives,” says , interim dean of Geisel and a 2023 NAM inductee. “We are proud to see the work of our colleagues and leaders acknowledged on a national stage—it elevates our entire community.”

The academy cited Beilock “for carving out a novel and creative research program in her investigations of skill learning and performance, fundamentally advancing the understanding of how anxiety and high-pressure situations compromise the performance of complex skills such as test taking, public speaking, and people working together.”

Beilock is the author of more than 120 scholarly papers and of two well-received books: How the Body Knows Its Mind: The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel and Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To. She was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2024 and received the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences in 2017.

NAM recognized Colla “for pathbreaking and influential research documenting the impact of payment policy on health outcomes, health care spending, and inequality; and for public service in her leadership of the Division of Health Analysis at the Congressional Budget Office, providing nonpartisan, objective information and analysis to inform federal health legislation.”

Colla, who majored in economics at ���㽶��Ƶ, directed the CBO’s Division of Health Analysis from 2021 to 2023. She previously participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship Program and worked with New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services on the Medicaid program. In 2020, Colla was selected as an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar by the National Academy of Medicine. She has authored over 100 scholarly papers. 

Andrea Hayes Dixon ’87, MED ’91, the dean and senior vice president of Howard University College of Medicine, has also been elected to the academy this year. Dixon, the first Black woman pediatric surgeon in the United States and the first woman to lead Howard’s medical school, received an honorary degree from ���㽶��Ƶ in 2023.

In addition to Conroy, Leach, Skinner, and Fisher, other ���㽶��Ƶ members of the academy include Paul Batalden, professor of pediatrics emerit; Albert Mulley, professor of medicine; Harold Sox, professor of medicine emerit; Douglas Staiger, the John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professor in the Social Sciences; Andrew Wallace, professor of medicine emerit; James Weinstein, professor of orthopaedics emerit; and Michael Zubkoff, a professor of community and family medicine.