Spencer is an environmental designer and social scientist dedicated to improving the public realm. He contributes to built environment projects with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and previously helped restore over 20 acres of community-managed open space with the environmental nonprofit GrowNYC.

He has professional training in urban design with backgrounds in environmental psychology and social work. His green infrastructure design has been featured in The New York Times and his environmental and social science research has been published in the landscape architecture journal PLOT, the Michigan Journal of Sustainability, the journal Mind & Society, and the book Sustainable Consumption, Promise or Myth?​​​​​​​ He is a licensed social worker and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.