Christina Economos, professor and dean of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, has been named a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

An international leader in research into children’s nutrition, health, and obesity prevention, Economos is one of 100 new members, including 90 from the U.S. and 10 international members. 

The NAM was founded to advance science, inform policy, and catalyze action with the goal of optimal health for everyone. Among the NAM’s 2,500 members are some of the nation’s foremost scholars, innovators, and business leaders who are committed to scientific excellence and public service. The academy works alongside the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions.

In their announcement, the academy called Economos a “renowned nutrition scholar and leader in the design and implementation of multidimensional childhood obesity prevention approaches and use of systems science tools to achieve whole-of-community effectiveness.” They also said her “pioneering research has particular relevance to interventions with ethnically and socio-economically diverse populations in urban and rural communities and schools.”

Economos has been a significant contributor to the Tufts community since earning her Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry from the Friedman School in 1996. She has been faculty at the Friedman School since 1998 and the Tufts University School of Medicine since 2002. She became the endowed New Balance Chair in Childhood Nutrition in 2007. In 2022, she was appointed the interim dean of the Friedman School, the only graduate school of nutrition in the United States, and was installed as the permanent dean a year later.

Economos is the co-founder and former director of ChildObesity180, an organization that brings together leaders from nutrition and public health research and practice with business, government, and nonprofit leaders to generate urgency and find solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic. 

In 2022, she was awarded a $6.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a co-principal investigator to develop and test a multi-level, community-engaged intervention to build a sustainable food economy with food-is-medicine programs to improve outcomes related to obesity and diabetes in the Mississippi Delta. Collaborators include Tougaloo College, the Ruben V. Anderson Center for Justice, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Delta Health Center, and 10 local farms. Delta GREENS (Growing a Resilient, Enriching, Equitable, Nourishing food System) focuses on three Mississippi counties where nearly one third of the population lives at or below the poverty level, and rates of obesity and diabetes are nearly double those of the national average.

A prolific researcher and principal investigator of large-scale research studies, Economos has authored 230 scientific publications. She’s involved in national obesity and public health activities and has served on four Institute of Medicine committees including her recent six-year role as vice chair of the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions, the Committee on an Evidence Framework for Obesity Prevention Decision-Making, the Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention, and the 2012 Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention study, which was strategically linked to the HBO documentary series, Weight of the Nation. In addition, she served on the American Heart Association’s Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health and committees within the American Society of Nutrition and the Obesity Society. 

“National Academy of Medicine President Victor Dzau has characterized the academy as ‘moving proactively to catalyze collective action among the diverse stakeholders who hold the levers for change.’ Throughout her career, Chris Economos has been an exemplar of that catalytic practice, co-creating research and delivering outcomes alongside the communities she strives to impact,” said Caroline Genco, provost and senior vice president. “Tufts is deeply proud that the National Academy has recognized her deep commitment to evidence-based innovations in pursuit of better health outcomes for people all around the world.”