Jeanette W. Weldon, executive director of the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority, and Elaine Brennan, president and executive director of the public finance department at Roosevelt & Cross, won the 2025 Freda Johnson Award.
Weldon, the public-sector winner, and Brennan, the private-sector winner, will be honored at The Bond Buyer's 24th Annual Deal of the Year Awards on Dec. 2.
The award, presented by the Northeast Women in Public Finance,
"As I went through my career, I had different opportunities … but I did enjoy the ability to work with these nonprofit organizations and provide guidance on financing strategies," said Weldon. "And so after a stint as the CFO of (a small Connecticut community) hospital, I moved back into the public finance side of things, working with a variety of nonprofits, and then ultimately landing with CHEFA."
Weldon, who also leads the Connecticut Higher Education Supplemental Loan Authority — a subsidiary of CHEFA that issues bonds to fund loans to Connecticut students — said she finds fulfillment by helping to provide cost-effective student loans, need-based scholarships and financial literacy products.
"It's not just about the ability to have an impact on nonprofit organizations throughout the state, but also the ability to have some significant impact on young people in the state who are trying to further their careers or start their careers," she said.
Weldon was in business school at Columbia University when she attended a career fair and was intrigued by the presentations of fixed-income analysts. She earned her MBA and Master of Public Health, then worked at Moody's Ratings in the healthcare group.
She later served as an investment banker for Bank of Boston, a financial advisor with P.G. Corbin & Co., and CFO and interim CEO of Windham Hospital. In March 2009, she moved to CHEFA, where she leads 22 staffers.
She gives her direct reports "the freedom to voice and act on new ideas so that the organization continues to evolve," she said.
As a mentor, she said, she's enjoyed engaging with younger professionals through NEWPF. She also networks with CHESLA's scholarship award recipients and tries to encourage those students.
"Don't be focused on blending into the background," Weldon advises young public finance professionals. "Stand out and say what's on your mind. Because if you don't speak up, if you don't say what you think, people will think you have no ideas. So really use your voice."
Brennan wound up in public finance — after a stint in insurance — because of her husband and her best friend from college, both public finance professionals.
"I just found their work very interesting," she said. "I had an opportunity to move into the field in 1979 and I took it. And I'm very glad I did, because I feel like I've really grown with the industry. I've done several different facets of trading, some sales, underwriting, and now public finance banking."
Brennan's career has taken her from Chemical Bank to Roosevelt & Cross, where she's risen through the ranks over 32 years. But during a year away from Chemical in the 1980s, she got a firsthand lesson in discrimination against women in finance, although much has shifted.
"The experience has definitely changed since I started in the business," she said. "It was a little more difficult, because there were some people with (a certain) mindset … I was up for a job at a firm. My supervisor, who was leaving, recommended me for the job. I was basically told that it wasn't available to a woman.
"It was much more difficult back then to get recognized for your achievements as well as move up in the industry," she said. "It certainly wasn't impossible. I had a lot of great mentors back then and still do."
As a member of the NEWPF mentor committee, Brennan tries to promote "education by conversation," she said.
"I have a mentee every year and I learn from them and they hopefully learn and get some guidance from me," Brennan said.
Her general philosophy is, "you work hard, excel at your field are inclusive and you encourage and promote everyone in the room to do a thorough and professional job, it helps everyone."
Decades after seizing the chance to join the industry, Brennan never looked back. She said she enjoys her work because public finance professionals help improve the quality of life for everyone by arranging capital for basic services and for improvements to school facilities, roads and clean water, among other purposes.
"It's very gratifying when we close a bond issue, that we know that those funds are going to make life better for people," she said.
This year's public-sector trailblazers are: Sherien N. Khella, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey treasurer; Jill Jaworski, chief financial officer for the city of Chicago; Laura Farmer, chief financial officer for the Virginia Department of Transportation; Lisa Eisenberg, director of debt management for the state of Ohio; Sanna Wong-Chen, associate director for the city of New York Office of Management and Budget; and Meghan Gutekunst, associate vice president for the University of California Office of the President.
The private-sector trailblazers are: Julie Burger, managing director and co-head of public finance at Wells Fargo; Nora Wittstruck, chief analytical officer, governments at S&P Global Ratings; Pepe Finn, chair and CEO at Stern Brothers & Co; Cathy Krawitz, head of municipal credit at Northwestern Mutual; Kelly Hutchinson, partner, government and public finance at Katten; and Linda Vanderperre, managing director at Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
