Skip to main content
Events

34th Annual Conference

Welcome Back!

The Minnesota Higher Education Facilities Authority is pleased to announce that the 34th Annual Conference on Financing Issues for Higher Education is returning for 2022. Remote viewing will be available if that works better for you than attending in person. Please save Thursday, August 11, 2022, as the date for the Authority Finance Conference.

We’re meeting in person this year, at the lovingly renovated Union Depot in Lowertown Saint Paul. We will also be offering online viewing.

We have a great line-up of speakers on topics relevant to your work. We look forward to you joining us for interesting presentations, an opportunity to meet your peers, and a great networking opportunity.

Agenda

9:15 am Registration, Networking, and Breakfast

9:45 am Introduction, Welcome & Authority Perspective

10:00 am Economic Update & Market Report

10:50 am Networking Break

11:00 am Moody’s Investors Service Overview and Insights on Higher Education Trends

  • Debra Roane, Vice President, Senior Credit Officer
  • Jared Brewster, Vice President   

               Moody’s Investors Service Global Higher Education and Not For Profit Ratings

12:00 pm Arbitrage Rebate and other Hot Topics

12:30 pm State of Minnesota Demographic Update

1:00 pm Lunch and Authority’s 50th Anniversary Recognition

 

speaker biographies

Jared Brewster: Vice President, Moody’s Investors Service Global Higher Education and Not for Profit Ratings

Jared Brewster is a Vice President/Senior Analyst for the Higher Education and Not-for-Profits Ratings Team covering higher education and not-for-profit institutions across the United States, with a focus on the Midwest. Prior to joining Moody’s, Jared worked as a Director of Research for a private foundation.

Prior to working at the foundation, Jared was a Principal Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office where he was responsible for estimating and projecting debt and interest costs of the federal government. Jared holds an MPA from the University of Delaware and a BA in Political Science from Capital University.

 

Megan Elizabeth Dayton: Senior Projections Demographer, Minnesota State Demographic Center, Dept. of Administration

Megan Dayton is a Senior Demographer at Minnesota’s State Demographic Center. Since 2012, she has been responsible for preparing demographic projections for the State of Minnesota, 13 Economic Development Regions, and 87 counties. Serving in this role, Megan is Minnesota’s state representative to the Federal-State Cooperative Program for Population Projections (FSCPP) with the U.S. Census Bureau. Megan’s work involves the creation of school district estimates upon request for intercensal levy cycle funding and providing data analysis for state agencies, councils, and legislators.

Megan’s research interests include improving upon existing data modeling techniques used for state and sub-state areas, as well as social stratification and more general demographic trends related to fertility, mortality, and migration patterns. Megan has hands-on knowledge of social and economic realities brought about by recent demographic shifts. Her work engages an attentive approach to relating current demographic trends with the resulting likelihoods.

Megan holds a master’s degree in applied demography from the Center for Demography and Population Health at the Florida State University.

 

Dimitri Delis, PH.D.: Managing Director, Chief Portfolio Strategist, Piper Sandler Financial Strategies

Dimitri Delis is a Managing Director and Chief Portfolio Strategist within Piper Sandler Financial Strategies (PSFS) in the Fixed Income Department. He is responsible for evaluating economic trends, analyzing current economic issues and generating relative value strategies by integrating fixed income cross-sector trends with macro/economic analysis. He identifies/analyzes market dislocations across all fixed-income asset classes and makes presentations to clients. 

Prior to joining the group in 2005, Delis served as the cross-sector strategist for JP Morgan. Prior to the JP Morgan-Bank One merger, he was the derivatives strategist for Bank One. Dimitri’s experience includes market risk management for ABN AMRO where he was responsible for identifying and monitoring all market risk-taking activities for the derivatives and FX trading desks and bond modeling for Solomon Brothers’ proprietary portfolio tools. 

Dimitri Delis holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Chicago. He completed his Master of Business Administration degree at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2006. He is a registered representative with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). 

 

Kristen Kalinowski: Senior Rebate Analyst, Ice Miller

Kristen Kalinowski is a senior rebate analyst for Ice Miller’s Public Finance Practice, where she provides arbitrage rebate compliance services relative to tax-exempt bond issues.

Prior to joining Ice Miller, Kristen was a vice president for The Bank of New York Mellon Corporate Trust Company (BNYM). In this role, she was an integral member of the management team who prepared technical reviews of calculations prepared by the team.

Kristen also gained valuable experience at Pinnacle Arbitrage Compliance and Ernst & Young LLP.

Kristen is a Certified Public Accountant in both Tennessee and North Carolina.

Debra Roane: Vice President, Senior credit officer, Moody’s Investors Service Global Higher Education and Not for Profit Ratings

Debra Roane is a Vice President/Senior Credit Officer for the Higher Education and Not-for-Profits Ratings Team covering higher education and not-for-profit institutions across the United States including large public university systems, complex academic medical centers and prominent not-for-profit organizations. Debra was instrumental in expanding Moody’s coverage in the high-profile sector for sub-sovereign ratings in Australia and New Zealand and, in particular, in the Australian and Singaporean universities sectors. She also helped Moody’s to strengthen its presence in the Chinese regional and local government sector by leading the initiative to develop a knowledge base, research and outreach, and credit architecture from an early stage.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Debra worked for the Federal Transportation Administration in Washington, DC as a Presidential Management Intern and in New York City as a Project Manager. Debra holds an MA from the New School for Social Research in Urban Affairs and Policy Analysis and a BA from McGill University in Montreal in Geography.