Kathy Ruffalo is a government affairs consultant with over 17 years of experience in the public policy arena.  Ms. Ruffalo served as a senior staff member of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for more than 10 years.  During that time, Ms. Ruffalo was involved in developing, drafting and negotiating the last three federal transportation bills -- ISTEA in 1991, TEA-21 in 1998 and SAFETEA-LU in 2005.  She also spent six years as a senior advisor to Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne.  Recently, she was appointed by Congress to be a member of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission.  Ms. Ruffalo is a 1989 graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences.