Katherine Freund

Founder of the Independent Transportation Network ®(ITN), and President and Executive Director of ITNAmerica ™. Katherine has a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy from the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a past National Transit Institute Fellow and she served for nine years on the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on the Safe Mobility of Seniors where she chaired of the Alternative Transportation Subcommittee. Currently, she chairs TRB’s Joint Subcommittee on Transportation Options for Seniors. She also chaired the Task Force to Study the Safe Mobility of Maine’s Aging Population. She recently received the 2004 Archstone Award for Excellence in Program Innovation, Gerontological Health Section, American Public Health Association and an award for Geriatric Best Practices 2004 from the South Carolina Hospital Association and the Duke Endowment.

Her publications include:

• “Policy Initiatives to Move Seniors Forward,” Public Policy and Aging Review, Freund and Staplin, Fall 2005, forthcoming.
• “Mobility and Older People,” Generations, Journal of the American Society on Aging, Summer 2003.
• “Independent Transportation Network: The Next Best Thing to Driving,” Generations, Journal of the American Society on Aging, Summer 2003.
• “Surviving Without Driving: Policy Options for Safe and Sustainable Transportation for Seniors,” Transportation in an Aging Society: A Decade of Experience, 2004.
• “Transportation on the Horizon,” Mobility and Transportation in the Elderly, pp.145-155. Schaie, Pietrucha, ed., Societal Impact on Aging, Springer Series, 2000.
• “Independent Transportation Network, Alternative Transportation for the Elderly,” TR News, pp. 3 –12, Jan/Feb 2000.
• “Transportation Solutions on Horizon,” Aging Today, p.10, January/February 1998.
• “Build it and They Will Come,” Transportation, pp.12-15, September/October 1998.
• “How to Deal with Aging Drivers,” Eye on Washington, Maine Sunday Telegram, p.1, Section C, August 2, 1998.

Katherine’s National Transit Institute Workshops include:

• Maricopa Association of Governments, Phoenix, Arizona, February 2001
• Jewish Family Services, Berkeley, California, February 2001
• Lutheran Family Services, Roanoke, Virginia, March 2001
• The Maryland Consortium, Baltimore, Maryland, March 2001
• Montgomery County , Maryland , March 2001
• HESSCO Elder Services, Sharon, Massachusetts, March 2001
• Governor’s Advisory Panel, Keynote Speaker, Albany, New York, April 2001
• Highlands County Transportation Committee, Sebring, Florida, May 2001
• MARTA Annual Meeting, Lowell, Massachusetts, June 2001
• Inland Southern California Transit Training Coalition, San Bernadino, California, June 2001
• Myrtle Beach , South Carolina , February 2002
• Atlantic City , New Jersey , April 2002
• Oklahoma City , May 2002
• Seattle , Washington , October 2002

In addition to the NTI Workshops, Katherine has participated in over 40 national panels and conference sessions on alternative transportation for seniors. She was the keynote speaker for the Saferoads 2002 Conference in Melbourne, Australia in July 2002. Katherine lives in Portland and has two children, a son, Ryan, 20, and a daughter, Alison, 22.