Mike Castellano, Executive Director
Mike Castellano joined the Commission as Executive Director in May 2024. Previously, he was serving as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry & Security (BIS), where he led various special projects and stakeholder outreach relating to export control policy and the Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) authority for the Office of the Under Secretary.
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Christopher Fioravante, Deputy Executive Director
Christopher Fioravante is Deputy Executive Director of the Commission, where he leads the Commission’s operations and administration. In this role he is responsible for budget and finance, contracting and procurement, and human capital management. He is a graduate of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM).
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Kathleen Hawk, Director, Security and Foreign Affairs
Dr. Kathleen Hawk is the Director of the Security and Foreign Affairs team. Prior to joining the Commission, Kathleen served in a number of roles in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. She is a retired Navy Reserve Information Warfare officer.
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Charles Horne, Director, Economics and Trade
Charles Horne is the Director of Economics and Trade with the Commission. In that position, he leads the Commission’s work on trade, investment, and innovation. Charles holds a Bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies from Wesleyan University. He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese.
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Jameson Cunningham, Director, Congressional Affairs and Communications
Jameson Cunningham is Congressional Affairs and Communications Director, where he leads the Commission’s outreach to Congress, the press, and the public. For more than a decade, he has served in legislative and public affairs positions on Capitol Hill and in the private sector.
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Sarah Anderson, Senior Operations Specialist
Sarah Anderson serves as the Senior Operations Specialist at the Commission.
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Graham Ayres, Policy Analyst, Economics and Trade
Graham Ayres is a Policy Analyst on the Economics and Trade team, joining the Commission as a Research Assistant in 2023. He most recently worked as a campaign manager and political staffer in New Hampshire. Prior to that, he studied and lived in Taiwan for two years on a Fulbright scholarship, where his research centered on international development and food assistance programs. Graham received a B.A. in economics from the University of New Hampshire, and a M.S. in agricultural economics from National Taiwan University. He speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.
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Daniel Blaugher, Policy Analyst, Economics and Trade
Daniel Blaugher is a Policy Analyst on the Economics and Trade team at the Commission. He most recently worked as a graduate research assistant at the University of California, San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. Prior to that, he also worked as a research assistant at Peking University HSBC Business School and as a project assistant on the Bank of England’s Decision Maker Panel.
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Rachael Burton, Senior Policy Analyst, Security and Foreign Affairs
Rachael Burton is a Senior Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs team at the Commission. She previously served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) from 2019 to 2023 as the Country Director for China. Prior to joining the Department of Defense (DoD), she was the Deputy Director at the Project 2049 Institute where she managed the Institute’s research and programming.
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Matthew J. Dagher-Margosian, Policy Analyst, Economics and Trade
Matthew J. Dagher-Margosian is a Policy Analyst on the Economics and Trade team at the Commission. Previously a tech analyst at Trivium China, Matt’s work on China can also be found on: Wire China, China Labour Bulletin, The China Project, Jamestown China Brief, The Diplomat, Living Otherwise, and Bloomberg. In 2023, he received his Masters in International Studies from Simon Fraser University, specializing in U.S.-China technology policy and Xinjiang. Prior to returning to North America, he spent several years studying Chinese in China and Taiwan.
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Joseph Federici , Senior Policy Analyst, Security and Foreign Affairs
Joseph Federici serves as a Senior Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs team where he brings over a decade of national security and foreign policy experience to the Commission.
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Benton Gordon, Research Assistant, Economics and Trade
Benton Gordon is a Research Assistant on the Economics and Trade team. He previously worked as an editorial assistant at the National Bureau of Asian Research. Prior to that, Benton served as a Liu Xiaobo Fellow with the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Taiwan. His past research has focused on China’s data privacy regulation and Taiwan’s role in global internet governance. Benton holds an MA in China and Taiwan Studies from the University of Washington and a BM in Flute Performance from the Eastman School of Music.
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Niels Graham, Policy Analyst, Economics and Trade
Niels Graham is a Policy Analyst on the Economics and Trade team at the Commission. He previously was an associate director for the Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center where he managed the center’s research on the Chinese economy and U.S. international economic policy in the Indo-Pacific. He has also worked at McLarty Associates, the Albright Stonebridge Group, as well the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he was awarded the Pearce Prize. His analysis and commentary have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Nikkei Asia, and Bloomberg, among others.
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Zoe Merewether, Policy Analyst, Economics and Trade
Zoe Merewether is Policy Analyst on the Economics and Trade team and joined the Commission as a Research Assistant in 2024. She has four years of experience in technology, media, and telecommunications corporate and investment banking at institutions focused on China and the broader APAC region. As a graduate student in international economics at the Hopkins Nanjing Center at Nanjing University, Zoe wrote and defended her thesis on Chinese foreign direct investment in Japan’s service economy in Mandarin Chinese. She holds a B.A.
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Nicole Morgret, Policy Analyst, Security and Foreign Affairs
Nicole Morgret is a Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs team. Prior to joining the Commission in 2023, she worked as an analyst on the Center for Advanced Defense Studies’ (C4ADS) Human Security team and as project manager at the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). She has a MA from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.
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Jack Neubauer, Policy Analyst, Security and Foreign Affairs
Jack Neubauer is a Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs team. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked as an Assistant Professor of History at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses on modern Chinese history and the history of U.S.-China relations, including courses taught fully in Mandarin. He previously worked as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow for the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he taught seminars for core courses on global affairs and China’s politics, economy, and society.
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Jonathan Roberts, Congressional Liaison
Jonathan Roberts joined the Commission as a Congressional Fellow in 2022 and was promoted to Congressional Liaison in January 2023, where he helps with outreach to Congress, the press, and the public, in addition to performing research.
Prior to his time at the Commission, Jonathan served in the U.S. Senate primarily as a national security aide working on issues related to East Asia and international human rights. He also previously worked in the Texas House of Representatives on energy issues.
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Lyndi Tsering , Policy Fellow, Security and Foreign Affairs
Lyndi Tsering is a Policy Fellow on the Security and Foreign Affairs team. She previously served at the United States Institute of Peace, first as a research analyst in the Africa Center and then as a program specialist on the China Team. Prior to that, she interned at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Department of State. She has also worked as a report writer for think tank expert study groups, and as a dialogue facilitator, speaker, and performer with the Lab for Global Performance and Politics. Lyndi graduated with an M.A.
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Evan Ulman, Administrative Assistant
Evan Ulman serves as the Commission’s Administrative Assistant. His previous career experience includes internships in local and federal government and as a paralegal at a federal employment law firm. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Washington, Seattle, having graduated with College Honors.
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Cindy Zheng, Policy Analyst, Security and Foreign Affairs
Cindy Zheng is a Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs team. Prior to joining the Commission, she was a research assistant at RAND Corporation conducting research on U.S.-China competition across military, security, and political domains. She has also interned at the State Department’s Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, the Brookings Institution, and for a U.S. Member of Congress. Cindy received her B.A. in International Studies with minors in Asian Studies and Economics from American University.
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