Ruth joined the firm in November of 1995. She serves as the financial advisor for many school districts, including Los Angeles USD and Oakland USD, several districts in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, and others throughout the State.

Ruth specializes in school district finance, including:

• general obligation bonds
• certificates of participation
• tax and revenue anticipation notes
• refundings
• qualified zone academy bonds (QZABs)
• leases.

Ruth is familiar with the intricacies of school finance and accounting. She is active in the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) and regularly presents at the association's conferences. She is a panelist on "The ABC's of School Debt Financing" seminar presented by the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC). She has also made presentations at the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH) and the California School Board Association (CSBA) conferences.

Her recent notable transactions include:

• Los Angeles Unified School District’s refinancing of existing variable rate COPs that were insured by Ambac - The District reviewed the financial impact of several options, including conversion of the variable rate to fixed rate, and finally decided to refinance with a Letter of Credit. The process began in January, when Ambac first experienced a serious rating downgrade, and did not conclude until August, when the COPs were refunded.
• Sutter Union High School District competitive bond sale during the last quarter of 2008 - After the fall of Lehman in September, the bond market was in a shambles and very few transactions were being sold, with even fewer competitive sales. By carefully monitoring the market and by being prepared to conduct a competitive sale when the market recovered slightly in November (before crumbling again later in the month), KNN was able to sell the Sutter Union HSD’s $6.3 million general obligation bonds, receiving four bids and interest rates close to the market lows of earlier in the year.

Prior to joining KNN, Ruth spent eight years working in Washington, D.C., for the Federal government - four years as an economist for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and four years as a Congressional staff member.

Ruth earned an M.B.A. from Yale University and a B.A. from Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she grew up and still has many friends and family.

Ruth lives with her husband, Armen Sedrakian, in Oakland. Armen is a middle-school math teacher in San Francisco who has learned to appreciate the work of school district central office administrators (Ruth’s clients). Both are active in the San Francisco Area’s Armenian community. Ruth currently serves on the board of a charitable organization, “Bay Area Friends of Armenia,” that fundraises to support soup kitchens, medical projects and rural schools in Armenia.