Robert Travis Scott
Senior Advisor

Robert Travis Scott became President of PAR in January 2011 and retired in 2021. He has 40 years of experience dealing with public policy issues as a journalist, researcher, commentator, analyst and nonprofit manager. He is an author of many PAR reports on state budgeting, taxes, economic development, open governance, ethics and health care. His work has received national and regional recognition through awards for policy research, investigative reporting projects, business coverage and writing.

Prior to joining PAR, Mr. Scott was based in Baton Rouge for eight years as Capital Bureau Chief for The Times-Picayune, the New Orleans metropolitan newspaper. He previously served as Editor of the prize-winning Money section for the Picayune and as a business editor and columnist for The Greenville News in South Carolina. In the 1980s he was an Associate Director and Editor for a bipartisan, nonprofit national security policy organization in Washington, D.C. He has lived in Italy and Guatemala.

Mr. Scott is an honors graduate of the University of South Carolina’s Department of Government and International Studies, where he was named outstanding senior. He has a certificate in international studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies – Bologna Center in Italy.

Mr. Scott has served on state and national commissions and task force groups, including the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Louisiana State Advisory Committee, Louisiana’s Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy, and other advisory commissions addressing state fiscal and education policies. He is a member of the board of directors of the American Tinnitus Association. He is a facilitator for Dialogue on Race Louisiana and a member of the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge.