Center for Municipal Finance

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Justin Marlowe

Justin Marlowe

Director, Center for Municipal Finance

Justin Marlowe is a Research Professor at Harris and serves as Associate Director of the Center for Municipal Finance. He has published six books on state and local finance, including Public Debt Management: Strategy and Evidence (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press) and the first open textbook for public financial management, Financial Strategy for Public Managers (with Sharon Kioko, 2018). Since 2017 he has served as Editor-in-Chief of Public Budgeting & Finance, the field’s flagship academic outlet. In 2018 he was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration, and he currently serves on advisory boards for the Government Finance Officers Association, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the National Academies of Science, and several state and local governments. His column in Government Finance Review is read by municipal finance practitioners across North America, and he is proud to co-host the CMF-sponsored podcast – “The Public Money Pod.”

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Christopher Berry

Christopher Berry

Associate Director, Center for Municipal Finance

Christopher R. Berry is the William J. and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the College. His research interests include metropolitan governance and finance, with a focus on property taxation, intergovernmental relations, and social equity. Berry is the author of Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multilevel Governments, winner of the Best Book Award in Urban Politics from the American Political Science Association, Theory and Credibility (with Scott Ashworth and Ethan Bueno de Mesquita), and many other scholarly publications. His research has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington PostBloomberg BusinessWeek, the Chicago TribuneLast Week Tonight with John Oliver, and many other outlets.

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Paula Worthington

Paula Worthington

Faculty Affiliate

Paula R. Worthington is a Senior Lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she also serves as academic director of the School’s Policy Labs program and faculty lead on its MPP program.  At Harris, Worthington teaches courses in state and local government and cost-benefit analysis and advises students completing applied projects for public and nonprofit sector clients.

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Board of Advisors

Thomas G. Doe

Thomas G. Doe

President, Municipal Market Advisors, Inc.

 

Mr. Doe is President of Municipal Market Analytics, Inc. (MMA) which acquired Municipal Market Advisors in 2014. Mr. Doe founded and served as the CEO of Municipal Market Advisors, the leading independent research firm in the municipal industry, from its inception in 1995.

Dominic Garcia

Dominic Garcia

Chief Pension Investment Strategist, CBRE Investment Management

Dominic Garcia is Chief Pension Investment Strategist for CBRE Investment Management. In this role, he is focused on developing solutions for pension funds looking to expand their investments in infrastructure. Dominic, who has 16 years’ experience in the investment and pension industry, joined the firm from the Public Employees Retirement System of New Mexico, where he served as Chief Investment Officer. In that role, Dominic worked with stakeholders on enhancing plan sustainability, established a risk budget and delegation of investment authority to staff, and created a risk-based approach to portfolio management. Prior to his role at New Mexico, Dominic served on the Investment Committee and was a Senior Funds Alpha Manager for the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.

Lynnette Kelly

Lynnette Kelly

Former President & CEO, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB)

 

Lynnette Kelly was the former President and CEO of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), retiring in September 2019 after leading the self-regulatory organization for 12 years. The MSRB’s mission is to protect investors, state and local government issuers and other municipal entities, and the public interest by promoting a fair and efficient municipal securities market. In addition to her management responsibilities, Ms. Kelly provided strategic counsel to the MSRB Board of Directors and developed long-range strategic goals and initiatives in support of the MSRB’s mission.

Shayne Kavanagh

Shayne Kavanagh

Senior Manager of Research, Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)

 

Shayne is the Senior Manager of Research for GFOA and has been a leader in developing the practice and technique of long-term financial planning and policies for local government. He started GFOA’s long-term financial planning and policy consulting offering in 2002 and has been working with governments on financial planning and policies ever since. Shayne has worked with many governments of different sizes and types on financial planning and policies across the United States and Canada.

Colin MacNaught

Colin MacNaught

CEO & Co-Founder, BondLink

 

Colin has more than 15 years of experience in the municipal bond market. Prior to BondLink, Colin managed the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ borrowing needs from 2008 to 2015, issuing close to $25 billion in bonds and notes. His work was distinguished for its innovation, lauded by groups such as the NFMA and SIFMA, and earned two national deal of the year awards from The Bond Buyer. A big focus of his time was on boosting the state’s transparency to investors. Colin studied public finance at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Shawn O'Leary

Shawn O'Leary

Portfolio Manager-Municipal Fixed Income, Nuveen

 

Shawn is a portfolio manager for Nuveen’s municipal fixed income team, focusing primarily on national accounts and environmental, social and governance portfolios. Shawn joined the firm in 2009 to start up a research team supporting separately managed accounts. He previously provided credit analysis for Moody’s Investors Service where he covered a wide variety of municipal sectors, including general obligation, special tax, water and sewer, public power, airports, transportation, municipally owned hotels and other publicly supported projects. He began working in the investment industry in 2002.

Gail Sussman

Gail Sussman

Managing Director-U.S. Public Finance, Moody's Investor Service

 

Gail is the Managing Director for US Public Finance at Moody’s Investors Service. She is responsible for research and credit analysis for the municipal market and overseeing Moody’s consistent and transparent methodological approach to assessing credit risk across the public finance sectors including state and local governments, health care, housing, higher education and municipal supported products across the United States. In addition to these responsibilities Gail is a member of the Moody’s Public Sector Credit Committee, an ally of the LGBTA and a member of Moody’s Women’s Network.Gail joined Moody’s in 1984 and has had experience in a variety of sectors including states and local governments, housing and municipal supported products. She has particular expertise in the short-term product area including variable rate demand bonds, commercial paper and tender option bonds.Gail has been a recipient of numerous Smith’s Research and Grading All-Star awards and is a founding member of the board of Northeast Women in Public Finance.

Alex Wallace

Alex Wallace

Managing Director & Head of the Higher Education/Nonprofits practice at Loop Capital Markets

 

Alex Wallace is a 28-year veteran of the municipal securities industry with broad experience across many aspects of municipal finance.  He currently is a Managing Director and Head of the Higher Education/Nonprofits practice at Loop Capital Markets, a prominent minority-owned securities firm.  He spent 11 years (2009-2020) at U.S. Bank, where he started the U.S. Bancorp Municipal Products Group and served as the Head of the Public Finance Group since inception. Previously, Mr. Wallace was Co-Head of the Municipal Securities Group at Wachovia Securities (1996-2008) and was responsible for the Public Finance Group. Mr. Wallace also led a number of other businesses including Municipal Credit Origination, Syndications, and Municipal Leasing. He began his career in the public sector working for the Department of Revenue and the State Treasurer’s Office of the State of North Carolina.

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