Nikki earned both a MBA and a PhD in Environmental Management from Yale in 2018.  Her dissertation research explored the economic, policy, and environmental drivers of utility-scale renewable energy development on public lands in the western United States.  While at Yale, she was a teaching fellow for numerous courses at both SOM and FES and also worked for the Yale Office of Sustainability.  Prior to Yale, Nikki was part of the facility management team at Walmart’s corporate office and helped develop and implement a number of environmental initiatives throughout the company’s domestic portfolio.  She also has experience at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Walt Disney Imagineering, and several planning and design firms in New York and Shanghai.

Nikki holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from MIT and both a Master of Urban Planning and a Master of Landscape Architecture Harvard University.  She was the 2010 Garvan Chair & Visiting Professor in Landscape Architecture at the University of Arkansas.