Ecotrust Expert Bios
Dr. Sarah Kruse
Staff Economist
Ecotrust, Portland, Oregon
503-467-0785
Ecotrust projects of special interest:
Life Cycle Assessment of Salmon Fisheries and Aquaculture in the North-East Pacific, Preliminary Economic Assessment of Klamath River Dam Removal, Local Procurement in the Farm to School Program, Socioeconomic Baseline Analysis of the Pribilof Islands.
Areas of professional expertise:
Socioeconomic assessments, cost-benefit analysis, non-market valuation, survey design/analysis, farmed vs. wild salmon, socioeconomic impacts of dam removal, ecosystem service valuation.
Dr. Sarah Kruse is a Staff Economist in Ecotrust's Knowledge Systems program. In this capacity, she provides support to Ecotrust's Fisheries, Food and Farms, Forestry and Native programs on projects involving socioeconomic analysis. Kruse is responsible for managing multiple projects as well as conducting both quantitative and qualitative research that integrates economic, ecological and social considerations into each analysis.
Kruse is currently lending her professional expertise to the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Salmon Fisheries and Aquaculture in the North-East Pacific project. LCA is a well-established methodology for assessing the environmental impacts of a product, process or service throughout its entire life cycle. Ecotrust staff are partnering with Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada and The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology on this project.
Since joining Ecotrust in 2005, Kruse has worked on a variety of projects including an economic assessment of dam removal on the Klamath River, an evaluation of the Abernethy Scratch Kitchen, a review of the economic value of the Bering River coalfield, a socioeconomic baseline assessment of the Pribilof Islands and a case study of the Yukon River commercial salmon fishery.
In 2006, Kruse moderated a panel presentation on The Environment, Economics and Social Equity: Assessment and Decision-Making Using a 3-E Approach at the International Symposium on Society and Resource Management in Vancouver, B.C. She has also presented her research findings at other professional meetings including the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Conference in Montreal, the Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage, Alaska, and the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.
Prior to coming to Ecotrust, Kruse worked as a research associate for the Great Lakes Protection Fund at The Ohio State University from 2002 to 2005. In this role, she researched the economics of dam removal and river restoration. She also guest lectured for graduate-level classes on cost-benefit analysis, contingent valuation, survey design and the integration of psychology into economic valuation. From 2001 to 2002, Kruse served as a Peace Corps agro-forestry volunteer in Calle San Jose, Paraguay.
Kruse received her B.A. in Economics from The College of Wooster. She received her M.A. in Economics and her Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from The Ohio State University (Columbus). Kruse is a member of the International Economics Honor Society.
Publications include:
Kruse, S., T. Granata, and U. Zika. May 2007. An Economic, Hydrologic and Aquatic Assessment of High Head Dam Removal. Book Chapter in Economic Evaluation of River Systems, F. Hitzhusen, Editor.
Pelletier, N.L., N.W. Ayer, S.A. Kruse, A. Flysjo, G. Robillard, F. Ziegler, P.H. Tyedmers, A.J. Scholz, and U. Sonesson. (Accepted September 2006). Impact Categories for Life Cycle Assessment Research of Seafood Production Systems: Review and Prospectus. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.
Kruse, Sarah. 2005. Creating an Interdisciplinary Framework for Economic Valuation: A CVM Application to Dam Removal. Ph.D. Dissertation. The Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio.
Related Web links:
Ecotrust's Knowledge Systems: www.ecotrust.org/knowledgesystems
Life Cycle Assessment of Salmon Fisheries: www.ecotrust.org/lca
Economics for Equity and the Environment: www.e3network.org
