Dr. Spears teaches in the Master of Public Health program. He is engaged in community health research and works with a number of community groups in the Dayton area. He has been involved with Wellness Matters, a coalition building a healthy Dayton, since its start in 2007. He also serves on the leadership team of the Southwest Ohio Ambulatory Research Practice Based Research Network (SOAR-Net) and is a member of the Interdisciplinary Gerontology Team.