Nikki Johnson Springer is currently a joint MBA and PhD Student at Yale University. Her dissertation focuses on the development of utility-scale solar energy on public lands in the American Southwest and the competing needs of industry incentives, habitat conservation, and federal regulation.

Springer is the former Garvan Chair & Visiting Professor in Landscape Architecture at the University of Arkansas and has worked in design and sustainability roles for Walmart and the Walt Disney Company. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Urban Planning from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.