Friederike Keating (Affordable Housing)

Friederike K. Keating, MD

Affordable Housing Committee

Friederike Keating was at a wedding three years ago when she approached Susan Bresee, the current chair of the Planning Commission, to ask how she could get more involved in Jericho. She was an empty nester and felt she had time to contribute. “I have this concept of juggling balls,” she said. “I’ve learned that if you have too many, you’re going to drop some, but my kids had moved away, and I felt that I had time.”

Bresee suggested that Keating join the Affordable Housing Committee, and she happily applied. “Many of us have kids who grew up here,” she said, “and we realize that housing is so much more expensive than when we moved.” Keating believes that buying a house in Jericho is not affordable for younger people and even difficult for many professionals including teachers. “If you can’t afford to buy a house you find that there are very few condos or apartments,” she said.

“That restricts who can live in this town.” Keating is proud of the Housing Resolution which was put forth by the committee and adopted by the Select Board in 2023. The resolution sets a housing goal for the town. Even if the goal is not met, it’s a target to reach for and a way to measure actual versus planned growth.

Keating grew up in Germany but met her husband in the US. They returned to Germany for medical school, before returning to the States. They had to repeat some of their training, so they moved to Long Island for several years. When that was done, they wanted to stay in the Northeast but not live in a big city so they both got fellowships at UVM and moved to Jericho in 2001.

Keating and her husband had looked at a number of towns including Richmond, Jericho, and Underhill but one day while driving through Jericho Center, they stopped at the Town Library. Emilie Alexander was the librarian at the time and Keating, who at that point was the mother of a baby and a toddler, asked her some questions about childcare and learned about the Saxon Hill School which at that time was located in Jericho Corners. Keating eventually sent her kids to Saxon Hill and even served as president of the school for one year.

Those kids are now 27 and 25 and although neither of them lives in Vermont, Keating believes their lives were shaped by their time here. Katarina is getting her PhD in Geosciences and climate research while Lucas is training to be a pilot after working as a fly-fishing guide and ski coach. Keating’s husband David is a radiologist at UVM. Keating is a cardiologist with a specialty in nuclear cardiology which uses non-invasive techniques to assess myocardial blood flow. She was drawn to cardiology because the field has a lot of acuity, opting for that area over critical care. “I love physics and data and numbers,” she said. “The heart is a pump, so you need to know about resistance, pressure, and fluid dynamics.” Keating’s first two years at UVM involved research, followed by two years of clinical training. In 2014, she took over as Director of the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship.

Keating is optimistic about affordable housing in Jericho for the long run. She recognizes that residents may be cautious about change and fear ruining the environment with housing, but she believes a lot can be done without affecting our open spaces. She noted that on Town Meeting Day, voters approved a budget which included money set aside for wastewater, a line item which came from a member of the Affordable Housing Committee. “People in Jericho are happy to work on these things,” she said. “It’s slow but we’re getting there.”

Keating believes that if Jericho is going to have condos and apartments, they should be in the village centers, and to make that work, it’s necessary to have infrastructure. “Other towns have done it,” she said. “I think it’s possible. Once we have the infrastructure, we can have housing for people making the median income and below.” Keating thinks it’s important for people who want to volunteer to recognize that they don’t need to be experts in the field. “It’s amazing they took me on the committee,” she said “because I knew so little. I had no qualifications and no prior engagement in the field.” She also noted that people interested in volunteering should understand that they don’t have to be in leadership positions. “I’m not super comfortable with leadership,” she said. “I can write, analyze, think through things, and be a voice but I don’t want to lead. You can get engaged even if you’re not interested in leadership by helping out in many other ways.”