Christine Risch has been the Director of Research for the Center for Business and Economic Research at Marshall University since 2004. Prior to joining the CBER she worked as a contractor for the Department of Energy in Washington, DC, bigdough.com in Maryland and ICF, Inc. in Virginia.

Christine’s work for the CBER focuses on regional and local economic impact analysis, energy markets and energy and environmental policy analysis. Recent projects include impact studies on construction and staffing of regional wind energy and coal-to-liquids facilities. Ongoing energy-related work includes research for the West Virginia Division of Energy including wind energy, electricity transmission, and the dynamics of aggregate energy production, consumption and exports. She also conducts research in the areas of coal mine reclamation, anaerobic digestion, landfill-gas-to-energy, water resources and energy efficiency.

Christine frequently participates and gives presentations to the West Virginia Wind Working Group, the State’s Public Energy Authority and at other regional energy forums. She also designed the West Virginia Stock Index, which tracks the top 20 publicly traded firms that do business in West Virginia.
Christine holds a Master's degree in Energy Economics from the Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Marshall University.