As a health policy researcher, a public policy analyst, and an advocate, Dr. Ku's career has been built around the effort to understand and improve access to affordable health care for vulnerable populations. Among his areas of expertise are national and state health reforms, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), immigrant health, prevention and health care financing and budgets, with an emphasis on strengthening the health care safety net. "I am interested in applying the lessons of research to policies and programs at the federal and state levels, and working with governmental officials, community groups and advocacy organizations to advance policies and progress," he says. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and 200 other policy and translational health policy research reports. As a faculty, he has taught research methods and statistics at the graduate level for about 25 years. As a member of the community, he has help develop and guide the District of Columbia's health insurance marketplace since 2012 as a member of its Executive Board.
Professor Ku joined GWSPH as a full-time faculty member in 2008, but he has held adjunct positions at GW's School of Public Policy and Public Administration since the early 1990s. During that time, he also served as a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which focuses on improving policies for low- and moderate-income Americans; as principal researcher at the Urban Institute; and as a policy and budget analyst for the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program.