Dean is a PhD student in Applied Economics at the Dyson School at Cornell University. He studies the effectiveness and equity of energy programs and climate policy. He first became interested in studying energy and environmental economics at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, where he earned his MPP. During his time at Harris, Dean interned at the World Bank as a Data Scientist and was an external Bartlett Fellow with EPIC, where he studied integrated assessment models at the University of Copenhagen. After graduating from Harris, Dean worked as an E2e Fellow with the E2e Project and the Urban Labs as a full time researcher. In this role, he analyzed data on home energy subsidy programs and designed randomized-controlled trials to learn about state energy programs.