Catherine's work in the university sector includes teaching and curriculum design, research, and executive management.

She has wide experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate nursing, mental health nursing, counselling, and research courses. Her areas of expertise are mental health, mental health nursing, curriculum design, and qualitative research. Catherine has led and supported the development of four undergraduate and five postgraduate courses, including achieving accreditation of courses.

Catherine has led and supported large programs of funded research related to mental health recovery and nurse practitioner models of care. She has also supervised students enrolled in higher degrees to completion.

Catherine was the Professor and Head of School of a large, multi-campus school of nursing and midwifery in regional NSW for almost five years. She retired to work for the Commonwealth, where she undertook project work on veteran suicide. Catherine returned full-time to the university sector in late 2022 to be Head of Course for the ACMHN-accredited Postgraduate Mental Health Nursing Program at Central Queensland University.

Catherine studied at the University of New England, Charles Sturt University, and the University of Queensland. She completed her PhD at the University of Queensland on an APA scholarship. 

Catherine has worked at various universities, including Central Queensland University, Charles Sturt University, Federation University, the University of Canberra, and Victoria University. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Federation University.

Catherine has extensive experience working in practice-based settings as a clinician (registered nurse, mental health nurse, and nurse practitioner); and front-line manager, project manager, and area manager in practice-based settings. Her management roles have included front-line manager, project manager, area manager and executive manager.