Katie Freimark, finds joy in her new role as director of community partnerships
02/15/24 02:00:pm
As director of community partnerships, Katie Freimark enjoys working with strategic partners to identify and oversee joint initiatives.
One of those key partners is Children’s Wisconsin. Over the past four years, Katie has worked with them to create direct referral processes from their programs into various levels of care at Rogers, set up weekly huddles with staff from both organizations, develop the Integrated Healing Program at Brown Deer, and seamlessly transition patients from their medical unit into our eating disorder programs.
Additionally, Katie supports the Community Learning and Engagement team in its passion for community and internal work on topics such as WISE stigma reduction, compassion resilience, and Coaching for Success.
This year, Katie will celebrate 13 years with Rogers. She first heard about the organization in 2011 when she moved to from Bloomington, Illinois to Wisconsin to pursue a Waukesha County therapist job.
“My role was providing individual and family in-home therapy for children and adolescents at risk of being placed out of the home,” she says. “Those placements could include inpatient hospitalization, residential treatment, or foster care. Through my work, I had first-hand experience with Rogers’ stellar reputation for helping support such vulnerable kids and their families. I immediately knew that I wanted to work for Rogers.”
Katie began her career at Rogers as a float therapist, supporting inpatient and PHP/IOP treatment programs in Southeast Wisconsin. After about a year, she became an inpatient therapist for children and adolescents in West Allis. In 2017, she transitioned to deployment leader in Rogers Operating System for the Intake and Transitions Value Stream. In 2019, she began supporting the partnership with Children’s Wisconsin, moving from senior deployment leader to manager of strategic partnerships. Katie was promoted to director of inpatient and residential admissions and then in 2023, accepted the position of director of community partnerships.
“I love supporting and creatively problem-solving ways for our community and our patients to have access to care, as well as reducing the stigma on mental health treatment,” she says. “At the end of every day, I get to go home and know that I helped someone-- hopefully a lot of people-- get access to the treatment that they desperately need. No one should feel like they don’t know where to turn for help or that it takes too long. In my work, I get to see how quickly and seamlessly we can support the community.”
Getting to know Katie
Katie and her amazing husband Josh have two wonderful kids: Franklin, who is five, and Ellie, who is one. Since Franklin loves animals, they try to visit as many new zoos across the country as possible.
Katie and her family recently returned from a trip to Florida. She says the ocean and beach are her “happy place,” and she enjoys sharing that love with her children. Katie likes to collect seashells and sea glass, especially when they’re from her kids.
