Dakota is a PhD student at the University of Vermont’s Department of Community Development and Applied Economics. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina, Asheville in environmental management and policy as well as a master’s degree in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont. Before grad school, Dakota worked as a researcher and project manager for a sustainability consulting firm on issues relating to green building practices, community resilience planning, wellness-focused design and ecosystem-based performance metrics. Dakota is passionate about fostering vibrant, bioregional community networks that subjugate their economic system to people and planet. His academic interests center on the injustices of land speculation and resulting ubiquity of suburbanization, housing inaccessibility, and degraded social environments. Dakota’s past research explored the use of land value taxation as a means of buffering land markets from the exploitation of speculative investment. His prospective research will seek to elaborate suburbia’s role as a catalyst for individualistic economic rationales and a potential terrain for transformative political action.