Episode Summary
In this episode of Full Disclosure – Live!, DebtBook's Stephen Yokim and James Perez sit down with Alexandra Edwards, Deputy Treasurer of Debt Management at the Oklahoma State Treasurer's Office, to talk about what it takes to manage debt issuance across an entire state.
Alex shares her day-to-day role overseeing 10 to 12 state issuers, from the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to the Oklahoma Capital Improvement Authority (OCIA), and explains how her office supports issuers through the RFP process, document drafting, pricing, and beyond, while also advising state legislative leadership and managing relationships with the three major credit rating agencies. She walks through a few of this year's transactions, including a $300 million OCIA issuance for road and bridge projects and an $18 million deal to help Oklahoma Panhandle State University finance a bus fleet.
The episode centers on the planning and payoff of Oklahoma's first-ever statewide public finance forum, an event roughly two years in the making. The idea grew out of something Alex kept noticing at monthly Council of Bond Oversight meetings: issuers would linger long after a short meeting ended, just to catch up and swap information. She saw an opportunity to formalize that connection on a larger scale, bringing together issuers of every size for a single day of shared learning. The forum, held fittingly at Oklahoma City's First Americans Museum (itself funded by OCIA bonds), drew about 100 attendees and sparked conversations on technology adoption, AI's growing role in the credit process, and the importance of issuers telling their own story.
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Featured Guest
Alexandra Edwards serves as Deputy Treasurer of Debt Management at the Oklahoma State Treasurer's Office, where she oversees debt issuance for 10 to 12 state issuers, advises on public finance policy with state legislative leadership, and manages relationships with the state's credit rating agencies.
Alex has worked in public finance for more than 20 years, including 15-plus years in Oklahoma, and serves as staff to the state's five-member Council of Bond Oversight.
Top Takeaways From Session 05
(1) Spreadsheets can only take a billion-dollar debt program so far: Before adopting DebtBook, OCIA managed its capital planning and debt program largely through spreadsheets submitted by individual agencies. Under the leadership of OCIA Director Jamie Manolis, the office moved to a dedicated debt platform to replace a process Alex describes as unsustainable at scale.
(2) Technology adoption in the public sector takes curiosity, not just capability: Alex notes that change is often slow in state and local government, where long-standing processes carry no obvious "cost" until something breaks. What tends to move the needle is curiosity, issuers seeing a platform in action, asking questions, and hearing directly from peers who've made the switch.
(3) Connection between state and local issuers doesn't happen by accident: Alex's office doesn't oversee local issuance, but she saw a recurring need for state and local finance officers to exchange ideas, which led her to organize OCIA's first statewide issuer forum. Her goal: make sure any issuer with a debt question knows the state treasurer's office is a resource, not a competitor.
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