Courtney Demko

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Courtney Demko’s research focuses on caregiver health and well-being. She is particularly interested in Alzheimer’s caregivers and young adult caregiver burden. Courtney’s dissertation uses national survey data and focuses on the multidimensional factors associated with caregiver burden among young adult caregivers from the millennial population. This research is of particular importance given the increase of the older adult population in the U.S. and will demonstrate to policymakers and program planners the unique needs of an overlooked population.

Courtney has training and experience in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and has used her research skills on several grant-funded research projects at UCLA. She is a member of the Latino Economic Security (LES) team at UCLA which researches the economic impact of a nation growing older and more diverse. Courtney served as the Project Director for the team’s latest project which included conducting focus groups and surveying older white conservative adults in Orange County, CA looking at their attitudes and beliefs towards immigration and immigration policy. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as The Journal of the American Society on Aging and book chapters on topics related to aging and diversity.

As part of Courtney’s doctoral training, she has also acquired management and administrative experience as the Assistant Director for the Center for Policy Research on Aging at UCLA’s Department of Social Welfare and Public Policy. Courtney’s expertise includes writing grants for leading foundations.

Courtney also has several years of teaching experience. She has assisted in teaching both master’s and undergraduate courses at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs Department of Social Welfare. These include classes in Social Work Research Methods, Social Work Policy and Diversity and Aging. She’s also served as a Guest Lecturer at UCLA’s Department of Social Welfare including topics on Caregiving and Public Policy. Prior to entering the doctoral program, Courtney acquired training leading support groups and providing one-on-one counseling with homeless women at the Downtown Women’s Center on Skid Row in Los Angeles. She also gained experience providing care consultations and co-facilitating support groups for early-stage Alzheimer’s patients and their family caregivers at the Alzheimer’s Association in Los Angeles.

Courtney earned her B.A. in Political Science from Davidson College (2005), and an M.S.W from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, Department of Social Welfare with a specialization in Gerontology (2013).

SELECTED BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

The Politics of Aging in a Majority-Minority Nation and Later-Life Social Support and Service Provision in Diverse and Vulnerable Populations.

Gerald Kominski

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Gerald Kominski is a Professor of Health Policy and Management and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. His research focuses on evaluating the costs and financing of public insurance programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, Workers’ Compensation. He is also working extensively on evaluating the expected and actual impacts of health care reform and has co-led the development of a microsimulation model (CalSIM) for forecasting eligibility, enrollment, and expenditures under health reform. He currently serves as PI of several multi-year evaluations of Medicaid 1115 waiver demonstration projects in California involving disease management for fee-for-service Medi-Cal beneficiaries and expansion of coverage for low-income uninsured adults otherwise ineligible for Medi-Cal through county-based indigent care programs. From 2003-2009, he served as Vice Chair for the Cost Impact Analysis Team of the California Health Benefits Review Program (CHBRP), which conducts legislative analyses for the California legislature of proposals to expand mandated insurance benefits. From 2001-2008, he was Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the UCLA School of Public Health.

Dr. Kominski received his Ph.D. in public policy analysis from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in 1985, and his A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1978. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA in 1989, he served for three and a half years as a staff member of the agency now known as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). He is co-author of over 120 articles and reports, and is editor of the widely used textbook, Changing the U.S. Health Care System:  Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management, which will be published in its 4th edition in 2014.

Selected Publications:

Kominski GF (ed.). Changing the U.S. Health Care System: Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management, 4th Edition, San Francisco: Wiley and Sons, 2014.

Roby DH, Jacobs K, Kertzner AE, Kominski GF. California health policy research program - supporting policy making through evidence and responsive research. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 2014; 34(4):887-900.

Davis AC, Watson G, Pourat N, Kominski GF, Roby DH. Disparities in CD4 monitoring among HIV-positive Medicaid beneficiaries: Evidence of differential treatment at the point of care. Open Forum Infectious Diseases 2014;1(2):42.

Pourat N, Davis AC, Chen X, Vrungos S, Kominski GF. In California, primary care continuity was associated with reduced emergency department use and fewer hospitalizations. Health Affairs 2015;34(7):1113-1120.

Jones AL, Cochran SD, Leibowitz A, Wells KB, Kominski GF, Mays VM. Usual primary care provider characteristics of a patient-centered medical home and mental health service use. J Gen Intern Med 2015; 30(12):1828-1836.

Gans D, Hadler M, Chen X, Wu SH, Dimand R, Abramson JM, Diamant AL, Kominski GF. Impact of a pediatric palliative care program on the caregiver experience. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing 2015;17(6):559-565.

Lucia L, Dietz M, Jacobs K, Chen X, Kominski GF. Which Californians will Lack Health Insurance under the Affordable Care Act?Berkeley, CA: UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, January 2015.

Meng YY, Diamant A, Jones J, Lin W, Chen X, Wu SH, Pourat N, Roby D, Kominski GF. Racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes care and impact of vendor-based disease management programs. Diabetes Care 2016;39(5):743-749.

Gans D, Hadler MW, Chen X, Wu S, Dimand R, Abramson JM, Ferrell B, Diamant AL, Kominski GF. Cost analysis and policy implications of a pediatric palliative care program. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 2016; 52(3):329-335.

Labovitz JM, Kominski GF. Forecasting the value of podiatric medical care in newly insured diabetic patients during implementation of the Affordable Care Act in California. Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association 2016; 106( 3):163-171.

Sorenson A, Nonzee NJ, Kominski GF. Public Funds Account for Over 70 Percent of Health Care Spending in California. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, August 2016.

Mager-Mardeusz H, Kominski GF. More than 400,000 Californians with Developmental Disabilities Remain Outside the State Safety Net. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, November 2016.

Dietz M, Lucia L, Kominski GF, Jacobs K. ACA Repeal in California: Who Stands to Lose? Berkeley, CA: UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, December 2016.

Kominski GF, Nonzee NJ, Sorensen A. The Affordable Care Act’s impacts on access to insurance and health care for low-income populations. Annual Review of Public Health 2017; 38:489–505.