Cathy Neuhalfen, Founder and CEO

Cathy Neuhalfen began her career as a portrait photographer, where she spent years learning to read a face: the expressions, the natural gestures, the small things that make someone look like themselves. That training turned out to be unusually good preparation for aesthetics.

In 2013 she founded Catara Med Spa in the heart of her hometown, Algonquin, IL, driven by a new ambition: to contribute directly to how confident and well her clients felt. What began as a single studio has grown into a full medical spa staffed by nurse practitioners, registered nurse injectors, licensed aestheticians, and certified clinical support.

Cathy’s working life has been devoted to personal service, and that is what she crystallized into the Catara Med Spa Experience. Her principles are simple and she holds the practice to them: act with integrity, pursue excellence in every treatment, and show genuine care and respect for each individual. Those values are the foundation Catara Med Spa is built on.

Outside the practice, Cathy’s artistic streak shows up everywhere. She tends her garden, crafts stained glass, cooks, and travels whenever she can. Her favorite pastime, by a wide margin, is time spent with her grandson. Friends and family describe her the same way, consistently: exceptionally generous.

Cathy’s own role at Catara is not a clinical one. She is the Founder and CEO. Colleagues on the Catara team keep provider pages of their own: Stefanie Drozd is the Medical Director, Lily Zelaya and Ava Packiewicz are aesthetic nurse injectors, Karlene Stitle is an advanced clinical aesthetician, Jeanne Foote is a licensed aesthetician and clinic manager, and Lynette Reedy is a certified medical assistant.

If you would like to look around before you visit, the full team is listed on the providers page, details for the Algonquin, IL location are on its own page, and common questions are answered on the FAQs page.