Health economist and healthcare policy expert Carrie Colla ’01 has been named dean of the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Provost Santiago Schnell and President Sian Beilock announced on Aug. 5.

Colla—the Susan J. and Richard M. Levy Distinguished Professor in Health Care Delivery Science at the Geisel School of Medicine and the vice chair of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice since 2024—begins the role on Sept. 1. 

“Carrie Colla is a distinguished scholar and a brilliant interdisciplinary thinker with a proven record of leadership,” says Schnell. “What’s more, she is deeply committed to Dartmouth and to cultivating the kinds of collaborations across fields that drive innovation and create a vibrant academic culture. She is exactly the leader Guarini needs to advance graduate and advanced study throughout the institution.”

“Higher education faces real headwinds—shifting federal policy, evolving funding models, and rapid technological change—but Dartmouth is well-positioned to lead,” Colla says. “I see opportunities to strengthen the visibility and coherence of graduate education across the institution, to build intentional support for graduate student and postdoctoral scholar wellness and community, to develop new pathways for scholarship, and to ensure that our advanced training remains at the cutting edge of research and technology.”

Colla has 15 years’ experience teaching in Dartmouth master’s degree programs and has built a substantial record of mentoring predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and junior faculty. As vice chair of TDI, she served as a mentor for teaching-focused faculty. Among other institutional service, she is a member of the Healthcare Management Education Curriculum Committee and the faculty representative of the Restorative Practices Steering Committee, and previously served on the Geisel Faculty Council.

Guarini is central to Dartmouth’s research enterprise and to preparing future generations of scholars, teachers, and leaders. Established in 2016 and named in 2018 for former U.S. Rep. Frank J. Guarini ’46, who died in June, the school is home to nearly all Dartmouth’s PhD, MS, MA, and MFA programs, as well as the professional master of energy transition degree, and serves as the institutional hub for postdoctoral scholars and other advanced scholarly training.

Colla succeeds Jon Kull ’88, who over the past 14 years led the transition of the former Office of Graduate Studies into Dartmouth’s first new school in more than a century. Kull, a structural biologist, will continue on the faculty as the Rodgers Professor of Chemistry.

Colla’s research, published in more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, addresses how healthcare systems can be made more affordable and equitable while improving patient outcomes. From 2021 to 2023, she directed the Congressional Budget Office’s Division of Health Analysis. She has also participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship Program and worked with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services’ Medicaid program. 

The National Academy of Medicine named Colla an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar in 2020, and elected her as a member in October 2025, citing her “pathbreaking and influential research documenting the impact of payment policy on health outcomes, healthcare spending, and inequality.” 

Most recently, she was lead author of a NAM discussion paper that provides guidance for policymakers on how to reform the financial incentives of the U.S. health system to improve access, affordability, and outcomes.

Colla previously received a SYNERGY Career Development Award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

As a Dartmouth undergraduate, Colla (then Carrie Hoverman) majored in economics and completed the minor from the Rockefeller Center in public policy. She went on to earn a master’s in economics and a PhD in health policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and returned to Hanover to join the Dartmouth faculty in 2010.

“Leading graduate and advanced studies at Dartmouth is a meaningful moment for me. I first came to Dartmouth as an undergraduate, and graduate education has been central to my work for most of my career—as a teacher, researcher, mentor, and administrator. The opportunity to contribute to higher education, at an institution that has shaped me, is both a privilege and an honor,” Colla says.

“I am especially looking forward to working with Dartmouth’s graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, who are essential to our research mission and to the intellectual life of this campus.”

“Carrie Colla is a passionate advocate for research who is adept at bringing together different disciplines and perspectives to solve hard problems,” says President Beilock. “I look forward to her working with our deans and provost to strategically shape Guarini’s future.”

Beilock and Schnell also thanked Kull for his leadership in launching and guiding Guarini.

The search committee was chaired by Klaus Keller, the Hodgson Distinguished Professor of Engineering.

“What set Carrie apart was her combination of a stellar academic record, broad executive experience, and compelling vision to lead Guarini into its next chapter,” Keller says.

In addition to Keller, the search committee included: 

• Allison Bailey ’87, chair of the Guarini Board of Advisors
• Andrew Campbell, Albert Bradley 1915 Third Century Professor of Computer Science
• Yina Huang, professor of microbiology and immunology and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine
• Soni Lacefield, professor of biochemistry and cell biology
• Dean Lacy, vice provost for faculty affairs and professor of government; director, Program in Policy and Law
• Katherine Milligan ’90, Tuck ’07, associate dean for health care management education
• Katherine Nautiyal, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences; director of graduate studies in PBS
• Daniela Molina Palacios, MED/MD-PhD student
• Brian Pogue, Robert A. Pritzker Professor of Biomedical Engineering
• Jane Seibel, associate dean for admissions, access, and recruitment, Guarini
• Miya Qiong Xie, associate professor of Chinese and comparative East Asian literature; graduate director, Comparative Literature Program

Colla and her family live in Hanover. She serves on the board of Families Flourish NE, a residential substance use treatment center for pregnant and parenting mothers in the Upper Valley.