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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. She chaired the Maine's Task Force to Study the Safe Mobility of Maine’s Aging Population, created by the Maine Legislature in 1993. This work helped her eventually conceive of an organization that would provide rides in private automobiles, recreating the comfort, independence and dignity that individuals experience when they drive their own cars. She founded the Independent Transportation Network (ITN) in 1995, and developed an early social entrepreneurship 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 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 August 2018, ITNAmerica operates through 13 affiliated communities in 12 states.

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.

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 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.

She attended Levittown Memorial High School, and completed her degree in English Literature at University at Buffalo in 1972. She then attended graduate school for English Literature at the University of Washington but did not earn a degree. 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 the University of Southern Maine.

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, which in 2005 grew into ITNAmerica, a nonprofit transportation network for seniors and people with visual impairments in the United States. Freund has acted through her organization to offer dignified transportation alternatives for more than two decades, giving more than 1 million rides to older people and visually impaired individuals to date.