Spencer is an urban designer and social scientist contributing to placemaking projects that promote community building and environmental stewardship in the public realm. His current work includes restoring over 20 acres of public open space across New York with the environmental nonprofit GrowNYC.

Projects that Spencer has supported with GrowNYC have been featured in The New York Times. 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?​​​​​​​

Spencer has a background in social work and environmental psychology from the University of Michigan and training in urban design from the City College of New York. He has co-taught courses in environmental psychology at the University of Michigan and presented his work in public health and urban design at Columbia University, the City University of New York, the UN Habitat's Urban Thinkers Campus, and the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative. He is a licensed social worker in the state of New York.