{"id":33151,"date":"2023-01-27T18:21:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T00:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33151"},"modified":"2023-01-27T18:21:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T00:21:23","slug":"fredrickson-brings-a-focus-on-service-to-the-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33151","title":{"rendered":"Fredrickson brings a focus on service to the Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. John Fredrickson (left) relaxes with his husband Jeff and their son Leon in the family’s front yard.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sen. John Fredrickson has always known he wanted to help make a difference in people\u2019s lives. The only question was how best to be of service.<\/p>\n

The newest representative of District 20 left his hometown of Omaha for New York City to attend college and pursue a career path that had long been his passion \u2014 social work. Fredrickson said he imagined himself working on larger scale issues through policy reform, but he discovered a new passion for clinical work through his undergraduate coursework at NYU.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started my education and field placements, I really just fell in love with working one-on-one with clients,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved getting to really connect with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

After completing his bachelor\u2019s degree, Fredrickson went on to attend Columbia University where he earned his master\u2019s in social work with a focus on clinical practice. His experience in graduate school led to opportunities to work in LGBTQ+ health centers, federal prison, university counseling centers and several housing organizations.<\/p>\n

But New York didn\u2019t just yield Fredrickson the education and experience he was looking for, it also brought his husband, Jeff, into his life.<\/p>\n

After many attempts by both Fredrickson\u2019s sister and one of Jeff\u2019s friends to set the two up, they finally met at an annual holiday party hosted by Fredrickson \u2014 who joked that it was his costume that won Jeff over.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe couldn\u2019t miss the tall elf in the room,\u201d he laughed. \u201cWe started talking that night and honestly, the rest is history \u2026 we\u2019ve been together almost 12 years now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After adopting their son, Leon, in 2019, the two decided to relocate to Omaha to raise their family. Back in his hometown, Fredrickson began working in private practice where he provided individual outpatient counseling and mental health treatment. It was this work that Fredrickson credits for reigniting his passion for public policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you work with patients clinically over a long period of time, you really start to pick up on different themes affecting their lives,\u201d he said. \u201cI needed to find the root of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fredrickson realized that the Legislature lacked a representative with a mental health background who could provide critical expertise regarding the potential impact of legislation on communities. It\u2019s that role \u2014 drawing on his diverse experiences in the social work field \u2014 that he hopes to fill as a lawmaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat perspective needs to be at the table,\u201d Fredrickson said. \u201cI am ready to bring it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. John Fredrickson has always known he wanted to help make a difference in people\u2019s lives. The only question was how best to be of service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[279],"class_list":["post-33151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-john-fredrickson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Fredrickson_blog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33151"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33164,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33151\/revisions\/33164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}