Our History

Dr. Caroline Fisher met Nate Perry in 2014 while caring for a patient at a pediatric mental health facility. Their first interaction became the basis for a professional relationship that grew into the founding of Germane & Wise.

After decades of observing and participating in behavioral health care delivery systems, Dr. Fisher and Mr. Perry knew there was a better way to provide mental health care in primary care and hospital system settings. Their hands-on experience led them to start a consulting and service delivery practice, Germane & Wise Mental Health, in 2019.

Germane & Wise was founded to make high-quality collaborative psychiatric care commonplace in clinics and hospital systems nation-wide. We believe that the delivery of mental health services can and should be better for both patients and practitioners, and we are setting out to transform its delivery, clinic by clinic, and system by system.

In addition to our innovative system for boosting mental health care in the primary care setting, we offer consultations and expert research to think tanks, public policy groups, and other organizations seeking to make collaborative care a functioning, flourishing part of medical practice in the United States today.

Our Team

Caroline Fisher

Dr. Caroline Fisher is the principal and lead practitioner at Germane & Wise—a board-certified child psychiatrist with over 20 years of clinical experience and 15 years of progressively responsible leadership experience. Dr. Fisher earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College before receiving her MD in psychiatry and PhD in pharmacology from the Boston University School of Medicine and a master’s of healthcare administration from Louisiana State University. She did her residency at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, MA. Her educational background and professional experience have made her at home with the businesses of both medicine and clinical care.

Prior to founding Germane & Wise, Dr. Fisher served as the CEO of South Sound Behavioral Hospital, a free-standing psychiatric hospital in Olympia, WA. This work was preceded by her position as Vice President of Samaritan Health, where she oversaw mental health service lines across five hospitals. Her work there focused on improving performance, patient satisfaction, and quality of care, including the introduction of collaborative care delivery models.

Having seen firsthand the success that collaborative care models can bring to a struggling medical practice, Dr. Fisher decided to make the implementation of these programs her singular focus. She created Germane & Wise to bring collaborative care models to clinics and hospitals in need and improve mental health delivery systems across the United States.

Nate Perry

Nate Perry is the managing partner at Germane & Wise. He began his career in mental health at the Old Mill Center for Children and Families—a therapeutic preschool where he provided educational and mental health support to students and their families. Since then, Nate has worked in and trained others for the front lines of mental health care, including collaborating with an innovative emergency department diversion program and contributing to service delivery during his time at Samaritan Health Services.

At Germane & Wise, Nate and Dr. Fisher have successfully set up collaborative care management integration in over 15 primary care practices, with Nate training and supervising the care managers for each of the clinics. His knack for organization, empathy, and ability to connect with both practitioners and patients make him an integral part of the work Germane & Wise accomplishes.