Personnel
The combined professional experience of our partners, Rand F. Herbert, Stephen R. Wee, R. Meta Bunse, and Christopher D. McMorris exceeds seventy years. Our partners are seasoned professional public historians with proven management capabilities to handle the financing, staffing, budgeting, and scheduling of research and historic evaluation projects. Additionally, JRP's professional personnel include: a senior architectural historian, a historic architect, architectural historians, staff historians, and research assistants with degrees or advanced degrees in history and related fields. Our principals and staff historians meet the Secretary of the Interior's standards as set forth in the Federal Register for architectural historian, historian, and historic architect.
PARTNERS
Rand F. Herbert, Principal
Mr. Herbert's academic fields of specialization were in California and Western United States history. Following completion of his graduate studies at the University of California, Davis in 1977 (MAT, US and European History) he has worked as a consulting historian on a wide variety of historical research, expert witness, and cultural resources management projects, as a researcher, writer, and project manager. Mr. Herbert's experience as a professional public historian is broad and includes expertise in historic resources management, water rights and flood control investigations, land use assessments, and toxic tort claims.
Mr. Herbert is one of the founding partners of JRP Historical Consulting. In October, 1990, he was elected chairman of the California Council for the Promotion of History (CCPH), a state-wide organization founded to foster the preservation, documentation, interpretation and management of California's cultural resources and served a two year term. He also served as one of CCPH's representatives on California Resources Secretary Douglas Wheeler's Historic Preservation Task Force; and on the National Cultural Alliance's Cultural Awareness Campaign, California Steering Committee. He is currently a member of the City of Davis Historic Resources Management Commission.
Mr. Herbert qualifies as a historian and architectural historian under the United States Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards (as defined in 36 CFR Part 61).
Stephen R. Wee, Principal
Mr. Wee first entered the field of public history in 1976 as a research coordinator
for historical studies undertaken by the California State Lands Commission in
conjunction with the California Department of Justice, Lands and Natural Resources
Division. After completing his graduate education in the fields of urban,
environmental and California History,
Mr. Wee has served as principal consultant and project manager on many of JRP's projects concerning inventory, evaluation, and nomination of historic properties under CEQA, and under NEPA, the Section 106 of the NHPA of 1966, and the codes of regulation implementing these federal laws. Mr. Wee qualifies as a historian and architectural historian under the United States Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards (as defined in 36 CFR Part 61).
Rebecca Meta Bunse, Partner
Ms. Bunse's experience at JRP encompasses many elements of cultural resources management and general historical research areas including: land use, toxics, water resource issues, and cultural resource management, as well as litigation and expert witness support. As a Partner for JRP she has served as a consulting historian, principal investigator, and staff manager, as well as continuing work in general research. Since joining JRP in 1990 she has completed more than 40 cultural resources management projects, including extensive field recordation of historic properties throughout the state of California.
She has done a substantial amount of research at many public and private repositories, including the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Ms. Bunse has authored and contributed to numerous technical reports and historic preservation compliance documents such as historic survey reports, findings of effect, and HABS/HAER documentation. In addition to research and writing, Ms. Bunse's skills include the design and maintenance of project-specific computer databases with the capacity to manage thousands of records. Ms. Bunse qualifies as a historian and architectural historian under the United States Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards (as defined in 36 CFR Part 61).
Christopher McMorris, Partner
Mr. McMorris specializes in conducting historic resource studies for compliance with
Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the California Environmental
Quality Act as well as other historic preservation projects. He has served as a lead
historian, principal investigator, and project manager on projects for federal, state,
and local government as well as for engineering/environmental consulting firms. Many
of these projects have involved inventory and evaluation of historic resources under
the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of
Historical Resources, along with analysis of effects
Mr. McMorris joined JRP Historical Consulting in 1998 as a staff architectural historian.
He has been a guest lecturer at California State University, Sacramento’s Public History
Program since 2001. In 2004, he presented the "California Historic Bridge Inventory"
at the Preserving Historic Roads in America conference in Portland, Oregon, hosted by the
National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Rural Heritage program.
Key Personnel
Bryan Larson, Staff Historian
Mr. Larson's experience at JRP encompasses many elements of cultural resources
management and general
Toni Webb, Staff Historian
Ms. Webb's experience at JRP, and previously in the state of Georgia, encompasses
elements of cultural resources management, preservation planning and conservation,
and general historical research. As an Architectural Historian for JRP, she serves as
a project manager and primary researcher and author of various types of historic
resources and Section 106 compliance reports produced at JRP. Since joining the
firm in January 2000, she has completed field recordation on hundreds of historic
buildings and structures in the states of California and Nevada, and has gained a
substantial amount of research experience