Catherine Jacobson was CEO of Froedtert ThedaCare Health, a regional health care system based in Wisconsin, until her retirement in 2024. Jacobson joined Froedtert Health in 2010 as executive vice president of finance and strategy, chief financial officer and chief strategy officer. She was promoted in 2011, becoming president; she assumed the CEO role in 2012. She became the CEO of Froedtert ThedaCare Health in 2024. Prior to joining Froedtert Health, Jacobson spent 22 years at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago in various leadership roles.
Jacobson is the board vice chair of Vizient.
Current board appointments include Teladoc Health, Siebert Lutheran Foundation and Bradley University. She is also a past chair of the boards of the Wisconsin Hospital Association and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce.
Jacobson’s recognitions include the 2024 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, Wisconsin Hospital Association’s 2023 Distinguished Service Award and BizTimes Media’s 13th Woman Executive of the Year award in 2023. Jacobson was named to the list of Wisconsin’s 275 most influential Business Leaders in 2022, one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women Leaders in healthcare and list of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare multiple times. She received the Junior Achievement of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame as Distinguished Executive of the Year in 2018. She was recognized as a Woman of Influence by the Milwaukee Business Journal in 2013 and received honorable mentions as Executive of the Year in 2014 and 2019. Jacobson received an honorary doctorate in health care leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2015.
Jacobson is a member of Healthcare Financial Management Association and served as national chair of the board in 2009-2010. She is a member of the Chicago Network, an organization for women executives.
Jacobson received her Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois.