Claire Pendergrast

Claire Pendergrast is a health researcher with expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods, state health policy, and long-term services and supports. Her work focuses on Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS), Older Americans Act services, and stakeholder engagement.

At Mathematica, Pendergrast focuses on state and federal HCBS research and technical assistance. Currently, she serves as project director for the Administration for Community Living (ACL) to identify recommendations to update ACL’s Older Americans Act Health Promotion Evidence-Based Program review process. She also serves as task lead for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Evaluation of the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, where she conducts qualitative research to assess the impact of comprehensive care models on patients with dementia and caregivers. She leads HCBS system navigation, stakeholder engagement and communications to support the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services’ redesign of the state’s community-based services system. She conducted qualitative research for Mathematica’s HCBS gap analysis work with the California Department of Aging and the California Department of Health Care Services. In addition, Pendergrast contributed to a Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission project analyzing federal Medicaid HCBS authorities.

Before joining Mathematica, Pendergrast was a senior analyst at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). At ASTHO, she helped build state health departments’ capacity to support healthy aging, leading projects focused on Alzheimer’s and related dementias and on preventing falls among older adults. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Population Health and Aging from Syracuse University. She also holds an M.P.H. from the University of Washington.