Our Team

Mikhael Gaster, Executive Director

Mikhael is responsible for CAS’s strategy, technical work, outreach, and partnerships. Prior to leading CAS, he conducted research at the Jain Family Institute, developed CGE climate models for the government of British Columbia, applied LLMs and ML models in research at the Industrial Policy Group at Oxford, and volunteered as a data analyst for a civilian police oversight committee in his hometown. He has experience working as a data scientist, economist, energy transition analyst, and full-stack developer.

Mikhael holds an MA in economics from UBC, where he also earned his BA (with distinction) in economics and mathematics.

Jerome (Jay) Hodges, Chief Technical Officer

Jay has led technical development at CAS since its incubation at the Jain Family Institute, where he served as Chief Research Officer. His diverse research background spans natural language processing (NCSU), materials science (Temple University), and the philosophy of science (MIT). He has held teaching fellowships at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and at MIT. Outside of his technical and academic work, Jay has worked with social justice organizations and served on the board of directors of several grassroots nonprofits.

Jay holds a PhD in philosophy from MIT, where he was a Presidential Fellow. He also holds an MS in mathematics and graduated valedictorian from North Carolina State University.