After earning a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Riverside in 2004, Dustin began his academic career at Salisbury University, where he was steadily promoted to full Professor of Economics in 2017. As a trained econometrician, Dustin’s work has focused on data-intensive, empirical research questions, resulting in 40+ peer reviewed white papers, policy papers, and journal articles.
Dustin has conducted research for numerous organizations including the National Governors Association, the Pew Charitable Trust, The Mercatus Center at George Mason University, The Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University, and over a dozen clients vis-a-via the Business Economic & Community Outreach Network (BEACON) at Salisbury University. In 2024, Dustin will be a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University researching the use of large language models (LLMs) to analyze regulations. Outside of academia, Dustin has founded two startups and has served as a consultant for multiple startups including a Y Combinator funded startup (Zillabyte) and a Google-funded startup (Tala formerly Inventure Capital Corporation).
Dustin has testified to the U.S. Senate (Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management), provided written testimony to the Texas House of Representatives (Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee), briefed staff from four state governor’s offices (Alabama, Maryland, Ohio, and South Dakota) and state lawmakers from 18 states. Dustin has also been accepted as an expert witness by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Norfolk VA).
Dustin provides a wide array of data science services for his clients, including traditional econometric analysis (panel, time series forecasting, nonparametric regression, etc.), exploratory analysis, dashboard construction, and data visualization, data mining, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP) and neural networks.
Outside work, Dustin enjoys spending quality time with his wife and two children on Maryland’s rustic Eastern Shore.