The UCLA Fielding Health Policy and Management Student Association interviewed Gerald Kominski for its May newsletter. Above, Jerry with his family at Centre Court, Wimbledon, July 2013.
Name: Gerald (Jerry) Kominski
Title: Professor, Department of HPM, and Director, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Favorite Activities: Tennis, travel, photography
Favorite Ways to Relax: Reading, mostly history and biographies; watching TV; listening to my vast music collection
If you could have any other job what would it be: I have the best job in the world, so I don’t even know what else I would do!
What Motivates you: I was very moved by the civil rights movement growing up in the 60s, and it inspired me to join the fight for equality. I’ve wanted to make the world a better place, and I feel I’ve done that in my professional and personal lives.
Advice You would give to a HPM student: Whatever career path you choose, make sure you feel passionate about it! Life is so much more rewarding when you have an avocation rather than just a job.
Hero: As a kid, John Kennedy; as an adolescent, John Lennon; as an adult, my father.
Summer Plans: Travel to Lisbon
Fun Fact: I have over 20,000 songs on the iPod Classic I carry in my briefcase!
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. UCLA CHPR improves the public’s health through high quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. UCLA CHPR is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and affiliated with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.