CE Region Fall School Finance Workshop 2024-2025

Tom Dusek is a Senior Audit Manager with the Central Region of the Auditor of State’s Office.  He has worked for the Auditor of State’s Office going on 17 years previously working in Summit, Stark, Wayne, Ashland, Richland, and Crawford counties.  He is currently based out of Knox , Morrow, Licking, and Franklin counties.  He grew up just north of Lodi, Ohio and graduated from the Cloverleaf Local School District in 2002.  He graduated from Kent State University in 2007 with a Bachelors degree in accounting.  He is happily married to his wonderful wife Megan and father to a precocious and beautiful nine year old girl named Ruby.  He is both an avid reader of fiction and also an obsessive car enthusiast.

Ryan is a Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager at RedTree Investment Group. He has over 25 years of investment experience in the fixed income markets. Specifically, over the past 19 years, Ryan has been assisting public entities and other agencies with their fixed income investment needs. At RedTree, he is responsible for overseeing the firm’s investment process along with communication of the unique investment strategies for the firm’s clients.

Ryan obtained his undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Kentucky and his MBA in Finance from Xavier University. He has received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a current member of the CFA Institute. He currently serves on the Ohio GFOA Board and is on their Education Committee. 

Aaron Rausch is the Chief of Budget and School Funding at the Department of Education & Workforce (previously Ohio Department of Education), where he manages an agency budget of more than $17 billion and administers the state’s school funding program. In 2019, Aaron received the Dick Maxwell School Finance Award from the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. Prior to joining ODE in 2014, Aaron worked for the Ohio Office of Budget and Management as a budget analyst in the education section. Aaron started his career in state government as a performance auditor, focusing on school district performance audits at the Ohio Auditor of State's Office. Active in his community, Aaron serves as an advisory board member on the Columbus and Central Ohio Children’s Chorus Foundation, sings with the Choral Union at Capital University, and rides in Pelotonia every year. 

Katie Johnson is the Executive Director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials. Katie is the seventh Executive Director and the first woman to lead the organization since its inception in 1936.

Katie was the Deputy Executive Director for OASBO prior to being named Executive Director. In that role, she served as legislative lead and in-house legal counsel for the association, keeping staff and members abreast of legal and regulatory compliance issues in school business. In addition, she has served as the chief learning officer, developing curriculum to support OASBO’s strategic plan and the Ohio school business profession.

Katie also serves on boards and committees focused on public finance, including serving as a member on the Finance and Appropriations Committee for Columbus City School District, as Treasurer of the Confluence Community Authority, and as past President of the Ohio Chapter of Women in Public Finance.

Katie holds a bachelor's degree in Business Finance from the University of Colorado, a master’s degree in Education from The Ohio State University, and a law degree from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.