Gabe McDonnell-Maayan is a researcher and engineer at Just Horizons Alliance and a PhD candidate with Boston University’s Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences. His work sits at the intersection of computational methods and human systems—applying social simulation, statistical analysis, and machine learning to complex policy challenges across a wide variety of domains, including suicide prevention, sex trafficking, political polarization, and infectious disease. Trained in computer science and complex systems, Gabe specializes in translating qualitative theories developed with subject matter experts into rigorous, executable models that can be used for experimentation, scenario testing, and evidence-based policy support.
At JHA, Gabe brings a technically grounded perspective to interdisciplinary initiatives, contributing both the engineering depth to build robust simulations and the collaborative instinct to work across research, policy, and practice communities. His driving question is simple: how do you make complexity not just understandable, but useful?
