Uniting
Research and Policy

Jose Macias is a first-generation Chicano MPP student at the Harris School of Public Policy. His research interests are primarily aimed at understanding the threats that emerging technology pose to democracies, state and non-state actors’ weaponization of emerging tech, and operations in the information environment (IOE). Jose is a Teaching Assistant for the Harris Credential Team, supporting Professor Austin Wright and students with learning R programming for data analysis. He is also currently in his second-year of co-leading a cyber incident coding project since its transfer from Army Cyber Command to the Department of Defense Information Strategy Research Center at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Prior to his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, Jose was a Public Policy Fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington D.C. As a fellow, he served his Fall term as policy advisor to Senator Angus S. King with his national security team managing the cybersecurity legislation portfolio. He co-led the effort to negotiate the passing of the 2021 Defense of U.S. Infrastructure Act out of committee markup, secure bill cosponsors, staff meetings with stakeholders and provide legislation analysis to inform Senator King’s decision-making. For his Spring term, Jose served at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) with the Strategic Technologies Program. He conducted open-source research at the direction of the program Vice President, James Lewis and the senior associate fellow.

Jose holds two Bachelor of Art degrees in political science and international relations from the University of California Davis, (UC Davis).