Welcome back, Ruthie!
We’re excited to announce that alumna Ruthie Seroussi has rejoined our staff as the development director for The Public Interest Network and Environment America. As Public Interest Network Political Director and Environment America Acting President Wendy Wendlandt puts it, “We are thrilled to have Ruthie back on the team heading up our efforts to dramatically expand our large donor funding base. Ruthie has the passion, chutzpah and talent necessary to lead this effort.”
Ruthie was born and raised in Gloversville, a small town in upstate New York, and credits her Sephardic Jewish upbringing for instilling in her and her siblings values such as the importance of being politically aware and the moral duty to give back to the community and take care of those who are less fortunate. Ruthie also benefited from the global perspective from her father, who was born in Sudan, and her mother, born in England, as well as from her experience living in Nigeria as a child.
Ruthie headed to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations for college, where she learned from professors who focused on union organizing, the history of the labor movement, and organizational behavior. In the summer of 1990, during her summer break, Ruthie interned with the Teamsters, and it was around that time that she first heard about the PIRGs. As she did more research, she found that a lot of the issues NYPIRG was working on resonated with her. She ended up volunteering with them a few evenings each week and fondly remembers her work with NYPIRG calling and talking about issues she cared about. After interning with the American Federation of Teachers that fall, Ruthie was still undecided as to what type of career she wanted to pursue. Many of her classmates were going to law school, so Ruthie took the LSATs, applied and ultimately decided to attend law school at UCLA.
“Hostess with the mostess” Ruthie entertaining fellow alumni at a 2015 gathering she and Mike hosted at their home.
It was at UCLA that Ruthie’s interest in public interest issues and the environment blossomed. She served as editor of the Journal of Environmental Law and Policy and vice president of the Public Interest Law Foundation on campus. At this point, she remembers considering careers in environmental law, labor, legal aid or public defense. But first, Ruthie enjoyed a fun job immediately after graduating law school, working as a tour guide for the travel company AmeriCan Adventures and having a blast crisscrossing the country.
Afterward, Ruthie went back to Los Angeles to look for legal jobs. She had met former Fund for the Public Interest staffer Wendy Schneider on her first day of law school, which started a lifelong friendship and led to her befriending another PIRGer, Holly Carrington. Wendy and Holly encouraged Ruthie to apply for an open job with the Fund’s legal department. Ruthie sent a cover letter and resume to then-General Counsel David Wood, got an interview and clicked with him right away. Ruthie was offered and accepted the job; she started on Fund staff in February 1996. In addition to working with David, Ruthie worked with fellow attorney Pattye Comfort, who was in Boston, and Pamela Pressley, who remains one of Ruthie’s close friends today.
Ruthie’s first few weeks on the job entailed working with Holly to set up a petitioning canvass office in Reseda to support the Prop 212 campaign to get big money out of politics. During the Prop 212 campaign, Ruthie advised the team on petitioning rules and laws, site openings and signature counting. She enjoyed getting to meet and work with many PIRGers who came from across the country to pitch in with Prop 212 organizing, such as Abby Graf, Tom Subak, Mark Ferrulo, Dan Jacobson, Steve Blackledge, Christy Leavitt, Jon Golinger, Andy Igrejas, Kirk Weinert, Kerry Schumann, and many others. She enjoyed working closely with California-based staff such as Andre Delattre, Wendy Wendlandt, Julie Miles, Larry Eason, Christine Houseworth, Chris Wood, Veronica Geronimo, Jay Wheelock, Patsy Meyer, Scott Milbourne, Sarah Wolcher, Barbara Young and Christina Graves. And of course it was during this time that Ruthie met LA Telephone Outreach Project Director, Mike Newhouse; Ruthie and Mike were married in 2001.
In the fall of 1997, Ruthie moved back east to run her dad’s successful campaign for mayor of Gloversville using many of the tactics she learned working on the Prop 212 campaign. Following the campaign, Ruthie returned to LA to take a job as a litigator and eventually director of the Fair Housing Institute at UCLA, working on landlord/tenant issues and fair housing and civil rights litigation. She worked there for several years and then was offered a job at Buchalter PC, where she focused on labor and employment law while also squeezing in a lot of pro-bono work.
In 2004, Ruthie and Mike both left their law firm jobs to travel. After a year exploring the U.S., Mexico, and Central and South America, they returned home and helped care for Ruthie’s father, who had become very ill from diabetes. They eventually returned to their respective law firm jobs for a year, before taking another break to travel in Europe for four months and eventually starting their own firm, which is now called Newhouse Law Group, PC.
Looking back, Ruthie sees the seeds of her journey back to Public Interest Network staff were planted on that trip to Europe. Mike had decided he wanted to run for the Venice Neighborhood Council and soon was elected to a community representative seat. At the same time, Ruthie got involved with the neighborhood land use planning commission and then joined the Venice Arts board of directors, where she is currently president. She also stepped up her involvement in other nonprofits, in her childrens’ schools, and in hosting political fundraisers. Across all of these roles, she was involved in a lot of fundraising and came to realize that she was not only good at it, but enjoyed it.
So, when Wendy Wendlandt forwarded the job description for the Environment America development director earlier this year asking for referrals, it occurred to Ruthie that she herself would be a good fit. She applied and was offered and accepted the position.
Ruthie started back on staff in July and immediately recruited Sophie Basseches—whom some may know as the daughter of alumni Amy Perry and Josh Basseches—as her development associate. Together, they are focused on cultivating donors in the range of $20-50k and up. Ruthie has enjoyed reaching out to top prospects and influencers to set up meetings and setting up cultivation events to meet more prospects and start building relationships.
Ruthie and Mike still live in Venice Beach and have two kids — Holden and Dylan have been coming to the Alumni Aspen vacation since they were babies — and a two-year-old German Shepherd named Marley. Ruthie is still in good touch with Wendy Schneider, Pam Pressley, Veronica Geronimo, Barbara Young, Scott Milbourne, Holly Carrington, Ted Nordhaus (who married one of Ruthie’s close friends from law school), Chris Wood, Julie Miles and many more. During her years as an alum, Ruthie, as well as Mike, were very active in the alumni network, graciously hosting gatherings at their Venice Beach home and always serving enthusiastically on the Alumni Aspen host committee. You can reach Ruthie at rseroussi@publicinterestnetwork.org.
