Meet Kate
I am a Dementia Educator and Speaker with a Forte in Creative Engagement
Meet Kate
I’m Kathryne (Kate) Fassbender
Creative work in eldercare is what I was uniquely created to do with my time and talent. I am part artist, part educator, and I find joy in accompanying others along this dementia journey.
I believe dementia is not a death sentence, a reason to squash dignity, purpose, and joy, nor an eraser that eliminates the beauty of life. But it is also not a reason to fear suffering, and “shush” conversations about the real trials we face. Whether you have the diagnosis yourself or are a care partner, I seek to walk with you through the trials and triumphs of this life.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, I have spent my adult life living “out East.” As of Autumn 2025, I have made the decision to relocate back to Wisconsin, now calling Milwaukee home as I split my time between New York and Wisconsin.
My experiences as both a family and professional care partner has allowed me to dream big, to put out into the deep and imagine a better world for those on the dementia journey.
My One Thing
Creative Engagement isn’t only an activities approach.
It is a model (an evidenced-based model at that) of the full picture of care. If you leave it up to the Activities team to understand and use Creative Engagement, you are missing a big piece of the pie.
I view dementia like a secret garden, and our journey mirrors that of Mary Lenox in the classic novel, The Secret Garden. If we can find the key to get in, nourish life, and see the beauty that still exists we can journey this road with strength, beauty, joy, and community.
Kate at a Glance
My Heart
Enjoyment of the Snow
My Dementia History
I am the granddaughter of someone who lived with Vascular Dementia.
My Education Background
Creative Arts Therapy
My Favorite Artistic Medium
Scenic Artistry and Watercolor
My Favorite Beverage
Hot Chocolate
My Favorite Book
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
Current Music Obsession
Anna Lapwood
How I cope with Stress
Bake, Run, and Day Dream
Mountains or Ocean?
The Lake!
Partners Past and Present
My Dementia Journey
25 years ago, I started my dementia journey.
It did not come from a person I love being diagnosed with a form of dementia, a job (I was, after all, a 6th grader), or via a parent’s career. It came through a comment made by a classmate in science class.
In my 6th-grade science class, my peers started talking about dementia. At the time I had no clue what it really was, nor was I aware of anyone in my life who had dementia. I knew on some intuitive level, that when a classmate started calling it, “old timer’s disease,” that this person was further stigmatizing dementia instead of dreaming of a something better. This launched my passion for working with dementia as a volunteer. In 2005 when my grandmother was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia, the story become personal. My view of dementia, as well as a greater awareness of what it means to live with dementia drastically changed. I experienced the struggles, stereotypes, shame, joy, love, laughter, and dynamics of the family journey. The world of dementia that I had moved into continued to grow, evolve, and transformed once again as I worked to make dementia my career, recognizing that I was uniquely created for this purpose.
In my Art Therapy and Drama Therapy studies, I immersed myself into the clinical and regulatory world of senior living and found myself longing to bridge the gap between the clinical and the social, the brain scan and the relationship. In 2011, after deferring graduate school, I found myself spending my time in the world of arts access and life enrichment. During this time I created the Dementia Letters Project. It started off as a Life Enrichment program that gave those newly diagnosed with a platform to share their fears, hope, experiences, and anger towards dementia. This evolved into me piecing together both professional and volunteer work (which at the time was named, Bonae Memorie) and in 2015 officially started The Dementia Letters Project (the business) you see today. Over the years education took the lead, with me spending less and less time in creative engagement work. In 2025, I decided to change all of that and find greater balance between education and art.
Over the last 16 years, I have recognized the need for those living with dementia to tell their story, and for the greater community to start having a different type of conversation. There exists a longing to move away from doom and gloom and into beauty and joy. I started this project as a way to help all of us share our stories of dementia and move into that joy. As I write the current pages of the Dementia Letters Project story, I invite you to join me, to co-create a new plot line of dementia.