Courtney Demko

Courtney Demko is a Lecturer of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Davidson College (2005), and an M.S.W (2013) and PhD (2021) from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, Department of Social Welfare, specializing in Gerontology.

Research Interests: Dr. Demko focuses on older adult health and well-being, particularly Alzheimer’s caregiver burden. Her work employs quantitative and qualitative methodologies, examining multidimensional factors affecting caregivers. She has contributed to projects like the UCLA Latino Economic Security (LES) team, studying the economic impacts of an aging and diverse population, and served as Project Director for a focus group/survey study on older white conservative adults’ views toward immigration policy.

Teaching: She teaches 211A Human Behavior in the Social Environment and 260A Research Capstone at UCLA Luskin, and previously taught Social Work Research Methods and Statistics at California State University Los Angeles. Her philosophy emphasizes inclusive teaching modalities.

Experience: Dr. Demko held administrative roles as Assistant Director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging and contributed to grant-funded projects with the Ford and Archstone Foundations. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as The Journal of the American Society on Aging.