Robert B. McKusick, Ph.D., Vice President and Senior Principal
Duane A. Paul, Ph.D., Senior Consultant and Senior Associate
Lora Kay McKusick, B.A., GPS/GIS Manager and Associate
Robert B. McKusick, Ph.D., Vice President and Senior Principal
Dr. McKusick has 30 years of experience in natural resource
economics research and project management, including economic analysis of
water resources, benefit-cost analysis, economic base studies, transportation
pricing, land-use analysis, comprehensive natural resource planning, water
and energy conservation, agricultural development, and damage analysis and
valuation. He has testified as an expert witness in numerous economic damage
and water rights litigation and negotiation cases.
Dr. McKusick has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Davis. He joined NEA in 1978 after gaining extensive experience in river basin planning and analysis while employed by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. McKusick is the principal designer of a multi-state, comprehensive economic impact model. It is used to evaluate the economic impacts associated with changes in input prices and availability, transportation costs, and other economic variables.
He was the Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee of the California Bay Delta Economics Committee, from 1990 to 1995. He has conducted economic studies of irrigated agriculture for the last 25 years and has been called to testify at hearings before the California State Water Resource Control Board, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Kern County Board of Supervisors, and the California State Legislature.
Dr. McKusick directs all of NEA’s water resource evaluations on western U.S. Indian reservations and irrigation districts and agencies. He has completed or initiated studies on more than twenty Indian reservations in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and California. These studies examine past, present, and future water needs for irrigation, recreation, fish and wildlife, municipal and domestic, commercial and industrial, and cultural and environmental uses. He is responsible for leading study teams comprised of soil scientists, hydrologists, engineers, geologists, biologists, and attorneys. Dr. McKusick has testified in Indian water rights court cases and serves as expert witness for cases in Indian water rights, economic feasibility, energy, agricultural damages, and water allocation.
