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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 Stephenson

Jennifer Stephenson is a research associate at Burr Consulting where she is responsible for regional and municipal research analysis. She has technical expertise in benchmarking, performance evaluation, municipal budgeting, survey design, statistics, and economic modeling. Jennifer has helped prepare MSRs in Los Angeles and Yuba counties. She assessed regional infrastructure needs in the 187-city SCAG region for transportation, air quality, water quality, open space, and parks. She has also developed expertise in public safety, building and planning service evaluation.

Prior to joining Burr Consulting, she served as a statistical analyst at the UCLA Research Center and an economic development assistant at the United Nations Development Program. Her graduate thesis on school district benchmarking was prepared for the Los Angeles Mayor's office. She earned her Master's degree in Public Policy from Pepperdine University where she was a Forstmann Scholar.

Alexander Hebert-Brown

Alexander Hebert-Brown is a research analyst at Burr Consulting. He has expertise in commercial real estate, economic development and geographic analysis. Alex has conducted growth analysis and performance evaluation of fire, street, park, and reclamation services in Contra Costa, Yuba, Amador, and Butte counties. He has analyzed development activity, job creation, natural disaster hazards, pollutant levels, agriculture and open space lands for the six-county southern California region. He has recently analyzed the impact of the softening housing market on property taxes in California. Prior to joining Burr Consulting, Alex was a technician at the U.S. Navy's Space and Warfare Systems Center. He received his B.A. with Honors from UCLA, where he majored in geography and business economics.

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 and Planning Systems
MBIA MuniServices: tax administration and audit
Moreland & Associates: municipal accountants
Public Financial Management: fiscal analysis