Dr. Peterson is Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, Health Policy and Management, and Law, and three-time Chair of the Department of Public Policy, in the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs, and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. A specialist on American national institutions and the policy process, his scholarship focuses on interactions among the Presidency, Congress, interest groups, and public opinion, both in the general domain of domestic policy and with specific attention to national health care policy, health care reform, Medicare, and HIV policy. He also studies the factors that shape the influence of research evidence in policy decision-making, with a number of health and health care issues as the analytical lens. At UCLA he participates in the Policy Impact Core for the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS); is a Faculty Associate at the Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities; and is on the Internal Advisory Board for the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). For the University of California he serves for a second time on the Academic Senate's Health Care Task Force, part of the University Committee on Faculty Welfare. Dr. Peterson is a member of CHBRP's cost impact team.

Dr. Peterson was a founding team member of the Blue Sky Health Initiative to transform the U.S. health and health care system. Earlier he was a Legislative Assistant for Health Policy in the US Senate working on issues like health care reform, long-term care, and Medicare benefits. He also served on the National Academy of Social Insurance’s Study Panel on Medicare and Markets and for nine years was editor of the multidisciplinary Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. Previously, Dr. Peterson served on and chaired multiple National Advisory Committees for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as well as the faculty advisory committees for UCLA's Institute for Social Science Research and the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, and on the Policy and Community Advisory Committee for the UCLA site of the RWJF Clinical Scholars Program, and was a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Society & Genetics.  

He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.