Catherine comes from a background of practice, research, and government policy. Prior to joining the Hong Kong Metropolitan University, she held a position at the Education University of Hong Kong where her work focused on early childhood motor development. Before that, she served as a Senior Research Advisor in a New Zealand Crown agency, where she focused on using research to inform government policies in the areas of injury prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. She was a Research Fellow in the University of Waikato in New Zealand and an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Prior to focusing on research, Catherine practiced paediatric physiotherapy and completed postgraduate studies in movement sciences in Sweden. During her doctoral studies in HKU, she was an International Scholar in the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) where she trained in in the practice of psychomotor therapy for children.