Michael J. Gaines

Mike Gaines is a doctoral candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy analyst at RAND. He holds a B.A. in history from the University of Memphis, an M.S. in logistics management from the Florida Institute of Technology, an M.S. in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University, and an M.Phil from Pardee RAND Graduate School. 

Prior to joining RAND, Gaines worked as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton fulfilling a Defense Intelligence Agency contract in Stuttgart, Germany. He previously worked as a diplomatic security special agent at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Gaines is a Marine veteran with ten years of active service and 23 years of total service. He has experience in national security, strategic, and operational level intelligence, and he recently began working towards a secondary education teaching license. His research interests include addressing socioeconomic disparities in areas that include education, employment opportunity and advancement; financial, judicial and policing equity in heterogeneous societies; countering terrorism and insurgencies; gun violence and prevention; conflict prevention, mitigation, and/or domination; and generalizing stable outcomes in social interactions.