Children 2 Website Official website | Name Katherine Freund Role Activist | |
Full Name Katherine Freund Alma mater University at Buffalo, University of Southern Maine | ||
Aging actively ashoka fellow katherine freund
Katherine Freund (born May 5, 1950) is an American activist who has spent decades of her life on alternative senior transportation solutions. She founded the Independent Transportation Network (ITN) in 1995, and has acted through her organization to offer dignified transportation alternatives to more than 11,000 seniors and visually impaired individuals to date.
Contents
- Aging actively ashoka fellow katherine freund
- Ashoka Fellow Katherine Freund on Dignified Transportation for Seniors
- Early life
- Move into alternative senior transportation
- Family and personal life
- Awards and honors
- Publications
- References
Her work has been recognized through various national and international honors, including her election to a 2012 Ashoka Fellowship and as an AARP Inspire Award Nominee in 2009.
Ashoka Fellow Katherine Freund on Dignified Transportation for Seniors
Early life
Freund was born on Mitchel Field Air Force Base, Long Island, New York.
She attended Levittown Memorial High School, and completed her degree in English Literature at University at Buffalo in 1972. After enjoying a career as a florist, gardening columnist and gardening TV show host, she later pursued a Master of Arts in Public Policy from the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service at University of Southern Maine.
Move into alternative senior transportation
In 1988 Freund's three-year-old son, Ryan, was run over by an 84-year-old driver who claimed to have mistaken her son for a dog. He survived a traumatic brain injury that resulted from the accident.
Freund drew inspiration from the incident to seek solutions to the dangers inherent when seniors and visually impaired people drive. She pursued solutions through both policy and local action, and eventually conceptualized an organization that would provide rides in private automobiles that would recreate the comfort, independence and dignity that individuals experience when they drive their own vehicles. She founded the Independent Transportation Network (ITN) in 1995, and developed the model over time as she refined the service through research and experience. ITN was initially funded by AARP, the Federal Transit Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Transportation Research Board and numerous private philanthropies as it grew into a sustainable organization with a replicable model.
In 2005, with a business planning grant from the Federal Transit Administration and the Atlantic Philanthropies, Freund founded ITNAmerica. In 2006, the Atlantic Philanthropies funded the national rollout of the ITN model and helped to create the ITNAmerica transportation network. She was also appointed by former President George W. Bush to the Advisory Committee for the 2005 White House Conference on Aging.
In addition to serving as President of ITNAmerica, Freund currently serves on the Transportation Research Board's Committee on the Safe Mobility of Seniors and co-chairs TRB’s Joint Subcommittee on Transportation Options for Seniors.
ITNAmerica continues to conduct research, work on policy issues, and provide education to promote safety and mobility for older people. As of May 2015, ITNAmerica operates through 27 affiliated communities in 22 states.
Family and personal life
Freund lives in Portland, Maine. She has one daughter and one son.
Awards and honors
Freund has conducted 14 National Transit Institute Workshops, and participated in more than 150 national and international panels, conference sessions, and speaking engagements on alternative transportation for seniors. Among other places, she has presented on her organization's work in Australia, Canada, Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland, South Korea and Taiwan.