Leighton Ku, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Leighton Ku, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit nonpartisan policy research organization, based in Washington, D.C. Dr. Ku has conducted extensive research about the Medicaid program, including state health reforms, Medicaid managed care, the effects of welfare reform on Medicaid and related topics. Dr. Ku is the co-author of Medicaid since 1980: Costs, Coverage and the Shifting Alliance Between the Federal Government and the States. Dr. Ku also studies teenagers’ response to the HIV epidemic, including the shift toward safer behaviors that took place during the 1990s. He also teaches research methods at George Washington University.