Legislative leadership on Wednesday morning named a 14-year veteran statehouse fiscal analyst with a background in biology and the environment as the new acting director of the research department.
A subcommittee of the Legislative Coordinating Council named principal fiscal analyst Shirley Morrow as the new acting director of the Kansas Legislative Research Department, replacing J.G. Scott, who is retiring March 15.
“J.G. has been a phenomenal leader of KLRD and I guarantee you we will miss him,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins said.
Hawkins said there were multiple applicants for the position.
Morrow has been with the Legislature’s research arm since 2010. She starts March 15.
She has worked as a budget analyst during her tenure with the research division, reviewing budget requests from state agencies and the governor’s recommendation, among an array of other responsibilities.
Morrow prepares documents of the legislative changes made to the governor’s recommendation for state agency budgets and final approved budgets.
She is the training coordinator for the department’s fiscal team and is editor of the Fiscal Reference Guide.
Her committee assignments include the transportation and public safety budget, corrections and juvenile justice oversight, and state building construction.
Morrow’s subject areas include corrections and juvenile justice; coordinator of the joint committee on state building construction and budgets for Kansas Department of Corrections; the Kansas Sentencing Commission; and the Kansas Commission on Peace
Officers’ Standards and Training.
Before coming to work for the state, Morrow worked as a senior environmental scientist for Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, where she authored storm water pollution prevention plans for industrial projects in more than 30 states.
She provided expert investigations and testimony in court cases involving erosion and
sediment control and environmental permit management for industrial and golf course projects. She also provided landscape design for industrial clients and municipalities.
At Burns & McDonnell, Morrow had experience in project management and preparation of environmental assessments and environmental impact statements.
She provided in-house training to engineers on permitting and erosion and sediment
control design, and she coordinated with others on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permits, archeology studies as well as threatened and endangered species requirements.
She also worked as manager of storm water compliance and director of storm water for Walmart stores in Bentonville, Arkansas.
At Walmart, Morrow created and taught a full-day storm water training program approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and administered it to more than 4,000 people.
She reviewed storm water pollution prevention plans for about 450 construction project a year.
She’s published more than a dozen articles on storm water, sediment control, water quality and erosion throughout her career.
Morrow has an associate degree in biology from Kansas City, Kansas Community College and a bachelor’s in zoology from Fort Hays State.
She also has a bachelor’s in landscape architecture from Oklahoma State and a master’s in environment science from OSU.
