Catherine founded Useful Studio in 2013 and directs the practice. With 8 years as Deputy Chair of the Executive Board and as a Senior Director in the Useful Simple Trust, Catherine works across the multi-disciplinary groups of engineers, architects and sustainability consultants.

She is a highly experienced designer in architecture, urbanism and in public realm including footbridges. Her lean design approach and social purpose is fuelled by a passion for efficiency and positive impact which results in a natural timeless elegance in her work. The early years of her career focussed on planning and urban design working with WRT in California on significant environmental projects including strategic masterplans for Mission Bay and Balboa Park in San Diego as well as a townscape scheme for Santa Cruz. During a decade at Foster + Partners, as Associate Partner, Catherine's key projects included Albion Riverside affordable housing with the Peabody Trust, the Millennium Bridge and the Thomas Deacon Academy.

Catherine sits on the Strategic Design Panel for National Highways and is currently Co-Chair of the B Corp Built Environment Group. She is on the Executive Committee of the UK IABSE and a member of the ESWP (Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania) and the Net Zero Bridges Group.

With a commitment to education, Catherine sits on the Dean’s Council at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, is an External Examiner at the University of Westminster School of Architecture + Cities and regularly lectures on circular principles. 

Her first degree in Environmental Design was at the University of Colorado, Boulder and she has a Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was granted scholarships for academic performance throughout, graduating top of the class. Her education also included a year in Copenhagen attending the DIS.