Becca Levy is professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and professor of psychology at Yale University. Her research explores psychosocial factors that influence elders' cognitive and physical functioning as well as their longevity. Levy is credited with creating a field of study that focuses on how positive and negative age stereotypes, which are assimilated from the culture, can have beneficial and adverse effects on older people’s health. She has received the Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology and the Ewald W. Busse Research Award in the Social Behavioral Sciences from the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, which is given once every four years. Levy has testified before the U.S. Senate on the effects of ageism and contributed to briefs submitted to the Supreme Court in age-discrimination cases. She received a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University and held a National Institute on Aging postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.