Catherine has worked in higher education since 1995 and has managed a number of large-scale, multi-institutional change projects in the UK and across the European Union. Most recently, Catherine was UK Director of the European LifeLong Learning Project IBAR that identified barriers to the adoption of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education at institutional level in seven European states.

Catherine has been a consultant to a number of UK agencies, including QAA and QAA (Scotland); The Higher Education Academy; The Arts and Humanities Research Council; and JISC. She has also consulted on European Union change projects based in Eastern Europe and The Balkans and acted as an international contributor to institutional quality reviews. She has published on a variety of quality and strategy topics, including quality cultures. Catherine is currently a final year PhD candidate at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, where she was awarded an Adam Smith Scholarship. Her thesis explores emergent change strategies in higher education and she is undertaking field research at The Glasgow School of Art. Catherine is currently contributing to internationalisation activities at The Glasgow School of Art.