Robbie is a senior research scientist in NORC’s Health Care Evaluation department. 

His work seeks to contribute a greater understanding of (1) the health care experiences and disparities among children with special health care needs and disabilities, and (2) the health and well-being of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their families, over the life course. To advance knowledge in these areas, his research incorporates primary data from focus groups and interviews as well as secondary data from national and state-level surveys and administrative claims. Robbie’s methodological training and deep subject matter expertise helps to ensure that projects are rigorously designed while focused on the real-world concerns of individuals with disabilities and their families.

Robbie is currently leading the first comprehensive, national study to examine the oral health and dental care needs, experiences, and disparities among children with special health care needs. This project is funded by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. Extending this work, he is co-leading a survey project with Kate Honsberger to understand emerging health care and policy issues for children with and without special health care needs using NORC’s AmeriSpeak survey platform. Robbie was also recently awarded a grant by the Social Security Administration to conduct a study on financial security and retirement preparedness among midlife and aging parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

Robbie completed an NIH T32 postdoctoral fellowship training program in interdisciplinary research in intellectual and developmental disabilities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2020 to 2022. Between 2016 and 2020, he was a researcher at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University. Earlier in his career, Robbie conducted social policy research in the Office of the Governor in the State of Illinois.

Dembo's research spans multiple aspects of healthcare, disability, and social determinants of health. His work includes examining the psychological consequences of violence against people with disabilities (2018), female sterilization and cognitive disability (2018), and racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes among women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (2019). He has also studied self-injurious behavior among adults with autism spectrum disorder (2019), community health contexts and school suspensions for students with disabilities (2019), and the impact of medical homes on healthcare for children with special health care needs (2019).

Other significant studies include analyzing in-hospital mortality among adults with autism spectrum disorder (2020), the compounding effects of race/ethnicity and disability status on children's health (2020), and symptom sequelae following violence against youth with disabilities (2021). Dembo's recent research also covers social network typology and health among parents of children with developmental disabilities (2022), HIV treatment norms and stigma (2022), and racial/ethnic health disparities among children with special health care needs in Boston (2022). He has explored the effects of college degree attainment on neurodegenerative symptoms in genetically at-risk women (2022) and improving retention of diverse samples in longitudinal research on developmental disabilities (2023). Additionally, Dembo's work has investigated the relationship between social network diversity and mental health among mothers of individuals with autism (2023) and the health effects of sleep quality in mothers of individuals with fragile X syndrome (2023).