Catharine Freyer, MBA is a mission-driven leader with 20+ years at UCSF. She specializes in uniting high-functioning teams, elevating engagement, and driving organizational transformation. Recognized for creativity, deep listening, and compassionate leadership that turns challenges into meaningful, lasting impact.
Since 2018, Catharine has been the Division Manager for Neurology at ZSFG, where UCSF Neurology provides safety net care within the San Francisco General Hospital. She is responsible for the administrative, financial, operational, and strategic leadership of a high-volume, resource-constrained inpatient and outpatient teaching service with research spanning global health, neuro-emergencies, HIV neurology, and health-care systems. Her work with faculty, the Dean’s Office, the Department of Public Health, and institutional leaders aims to advance equity in recruitment and retention, ensure fair compensation, strengthen staff engagement, refine trainee roles, and expand research infrastructure.
From 2007 - 2018, Catharine was the Research Program Manager for Vice Chancellor for Research Dan Lowenstein, MD. She worked to bring financial discipline, clear goals, and measurable outcomes to some of the world’s largest memory and epilepsy studies. Organizational responses she led included transformative challenges—including the unprecedented regulatory shifts following the EU’s adoption of GDPR in 2016—shaping new approaches to participant agency, access to genetic results, and research design. She worked to steer global teams through genomics revolutions and global economic crises, guiding hundreds of collaborators—including clinicians, patient advocates, NIH partners, foundations, and industry leaders—through uncharted territory by anchoring vision and strategy in a strong, mission-driven research team. In partnership with NIH, front line research and clinic staff, built seamless research infrastructure that enabled more than 200 people across 30 institutions worldwide to create datasets that delivered breakthroughs for families affected by epilepsy and laid the foundation for a decade of genomic discovery. Brought these skills and tools to global networks in stroke research (Wade Smith, MD) and memory (Adam Boxer, MD).