From data warehouses to aerial yoga

By day, Beau Frierson helps keep critical technology systems running across LifeView Group’s family of nonprofits.

By night, he teaches martial arts and swordsmanship, trains for obstacle course races and practices aerial yoga.

While his hobbies may be unexpected, they reflect the same mindset he brings to work: a desire to keep learning, solve problems and help others succeed.

Beau joined our team in October 2008 as a program analyst in Information Technology. He came to the organization after a friend encouraged him to apply. What began as a new job quickly became a long-term place to use his technical skills in service of people.

“I like helping people,” Beau said. “That’s what I do.”

Today, Beau works primarily with Lakeview Center’s electronic health record system and data warehouse, helping care teams access the information they need to make decisions, run reports and understand day-to-day operations.

He also supports processes that most team members may never think about but use every day.

“When you log into the computer, your login account was created by a program that I wrote,” he said. “That’s one of those things that touches everybody in the organization.”

The systems behind the scenes

Beau has become known as a go-to person — not because every request falls neatly within his role, but because he is willing to help find the answer. He collaborates with IT colleagues, program leaders and frontline staff, often serving as a connector between people, systems and solutions.

“If somebody brings something to me, and I can’t do it, I’ll figure out how,” he said.

One project that stands out is helping bring Lakeview Center’s Medication-Assisted Treatment clinics live with the electronic health record system. Before the transition, much of the dosing process was manual, involving paper charts, tablets, repeated counts and hours of follow-up work. With the new system, that process became more efficient and easier for staff to manage.

“Seeing the change in their quality of life,” Beau said, “was one of the most meaningful parts of the project. Work that once took multiple hours could be completed in a fraction of the time.”

Always learning – inside and outside the office

Beau’s growth has also included stepping into leadership, though he does not naturally see himself that way. The transition challenged him to balance his understanding of systems with the need to guide others, share knowledge and support the team’s work from a broader perspective.

That desire to keep learning extends beyond the office. Outside of work, Beau teaches Aikido and swordsmanship, competes in obstacle course races and practices aerial yoga. He is also pursuing certification as a nutrition counselor. While the activities may seem unrelated, they all reflect his interest in understanding how systems work, whether that’s technology, movement or the human body.

His long-term goal reflects the same mindset that has shaped his career: make things work so well that people no longer have to think about them.

Whether he is solving a data issue or improving a workflow, Beau is always learning how things work — and how to help them work better for others.

His advice to new team members is simple: trust the people around you.

“Trust your leaders are going to do what is right for you, what’s right for the clients and what’s right for you as well.”

Support the mission-driven work of LifeView Group and team members like Beau who make it possible