Dr. Kusel has been working to help rural communities thrive by bringing people and ideas together to improve socioeconomic conditions and natural resource management. He conducted pioneering work to develop the concept and assessment of community capacity. The Clinton Administration named Dr. Kusel to Northwest Forest Management team to assess communities in the Northwest. Dr. Kusel led both the community assessment and public involvement teams for the Congressionally funded Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project. From 2000-2004, Kusel led the Pacific West Community Forestry Center, which focused on underserved tribal communities and natural resource workers and harvesters in the Pacific West.Dr. Kusel led a team that built a small, energy efficient heat and power facility for Plumas County's Health and Human Services Center. The facility is housed in the first full cross laminated timber building constructed in California. He and his Sierra Institute team are currently remediating a 28-acre old mill site to build a model wood utilization campus that will use waste and small trees to restore forests and watersheds in Feather River Watershed, relied on by over 20 million Californians.As a social scientist, Dr. Kusel helped lead a team evaluating community and social implications of climate change in the Sierra as part of California’s 4th Climate Assessment and is currently principal investigator for Sierra Institute's Disadvantaged and Tribal Communities assessment and inclusion effort in the Mountain Counties Region.