Beverly Burr, President
Beverly Burr specializes in economic analysis of public policy issues. Her areas of economic expertise include municipal fiscal evaluation, regional economics, public finance, and labor economics. Burr has 16 years of experience as an economist. She has prepared a number of studies on job creation, economic development, fiscal policy and municipal services for counties, cities, and regional government agencies.
Burr has authored numerous economic studies for policymakers. Burr served as project coordinator and lead author of the historic studies done by the Los Angeles Local Agency Formation Commission in processing the proposed special reorganization (i.e. municipal secession) of the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and San Pedro communities of the City of Los Angeles. Burr was principal investigator for the large-scale City of Los Angeles Tax Equity Study, a comprehensive review of the city’s complex tax system that culminated in modeling the revenue and job creation impacts of mayoral and council members’ tax reform proposals. Burr has written studies on the work behavior and prospects of welfare recipients, the causes of American income inequality, unemployment insurance, the geographic impact of federal welfare reform, the labor market impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and high-tech economic development incentives.
Burr has experience presenting economic studies to policymakers including city council members, city managers, mayors, county supervisors, regional commissioners, planning commissions, business groups and the League of Women Voters. She serves as an advisor to the California Employment Development Department, and formerly chaired the Southern California Association of Governments’ Data Task Force.
Burr has excellent communication and writing skills. Before and during her economic studies, she was a journalist. Burr earned her M.A. in labor and international economics from American University, where she completed all Ph.D. course-work and examinations. She earned her B.A. with honors from University of Texas at Austin, where she was a National Merit Scholar.
Beverly Werber, Communications Strategist
Beverly Werber is a content and program strategist with 25 years experience in the field of communications management. She has coordinated public agency stakeholder surveys, events, and reports on public policy and economic issues. Her publications include a wide variety of interactive and print publications. She has worked in the field of economic public policy for a decade and has produced more than two dozen large and small conferences covering a diverse selection of economic and education specialties. She received her B.A. with honors from Harvard University.
Jennifer Bravo, Research Analyst
Jennifer Bravo specializes in urban policy evaluation.with experience in budgeting, quantitative analysis, service delivery, and demographics. She has published on fiscal challenges and interdisciplinary approaches to public sector budgeting. Her research papers include analysis of municipal service delivery, accountability and effectiveness as well as statistical analysis of air pollutant health impacts and analysis of various California ballot measures.
Jennifer received her master's degree in public policy from the University of Southern California where she was a Dean's Merit Scholar and graduated in the top five percent of her class. A California native, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from California State University, Sacramento. Between college and graduate school, she lived and worked in Washington DC, and served as a docent at the National Zoo.
Dustin Shiau, Public Finance Analyst
Dustin Shiau specializes in public finance with expertise in service financing, financing constraints, revenues, debt, and reserves. He is presently assessing infrastructure financing shortfalls in southern California for SCAG and conducting financial analyses of boundary and governance proposals for various jurisdictions. Before joining Burr Consulting, he conducted research for the City of Los Angeles, the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington DC, and a Bay Area non-profit.
Dustin received his master's degree in public policy from the University of Southern California where his thesis focused on tourism and economic development. He is an excellent writer, having completed his undergraduate studies in English at Amherst College. Dustin served as a volunteer firefighter during his college years.
Cecelia Griego, Research Analyst
Cecelia Griego specializes in performance evaluation, benchmark studies, organizational behavior, land use and boundary research, surveying, and interviewing. Griego has reviewed scores of municipal budgets and general plans, and has constructed databases of comparable municipal expenditures and services. She has prepared studies on various municipal services including police, fire, utilities, public works, and transportation.
Griego has four years of experience in analyzing state and local public policies. She served as research analyst on the numerous secession and municipal service review studies conducted by the Los Angeles and Alameda County Local Agency Formation Commissions.
Griego's graduate studies in public policy at the California State University at Sacramento include her thesis focused on public sector performance benchmarking. She earned her bachelor’s degree in politics at University of California at Santa Cruz.
Liz Carlson, Research Assistant
Liz Carlson is a research assistant at Burr Consulting. Liz received her B.A. in political science and environmental studies at Tufts University where she graduated summa cum laude. She is a doctoral candidate in political science at UCLA.
Research Partners
The firm has hired experts from academia and consulting firms to provide project expertise. Interdisciplinary expert panel members advise on project design, policy options and policy recommendations, and also provide reviewers of research studies. Burr Consulting has coordinated expert panel members from the following firms and institutions:• CDM: utility engineering and rates
• Colantuono & Levin, APC: municipal law
• EDAW (formerly Cotton/Bridges/Associates): urban planning and GIS
• Economic & Planning Systems
• MBIA MuniServices: tax administration and audit
• Moreland & Associates: municipal accountants
• Public Financial Management: fiscal analysis• California State University, Sacramento: economics faculty
• University of California Irvine: transportation economics faculty
• University of California, Los Angeles: economics faculty
• University of Southern California: real estate/urban economics faculty