Catherine is a world leader in co-created curriculum and student-staff partnership in learning and teaching. Her sustained and extensive publications, international keynote presentations, advisory role working with many universities, and generous support to staff and students at all career stages, has significantly furthered understanding and practice in co-creation and partnership.
She has published over 60 articles and books and given over 80 keynote presentations and masterclasses about co-creation and partnership in over 14 countries.
Catherine was one of a very few authors publishing about co-created curriculum and student-staff partnerships in the late 2000s and contributed to the rise of interest in student-staff partnerships in higher education in the following decade. Her co-authored book Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty (Cook-Sather, Bovill and Felten 2014) is highly cited and considered a key reference book in this field.
She has also modelled co-creation within her teaching practice over the last 20 years. Catherine was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in 2019-2020 to research and teach student engagement and co-creation of learning and teaching, and contribute to strategic planning work at Elon University, North Carolina (nationally recognised for ‘engaged learning’). She is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Bergen, advising a Norwegian Government-funded programme ‘iearth’ - Centre for Integrated Earth Science Education, implementing student-staff partnerships and co-creation across geoscience education. She is also Visiting Fellow at the University of Winchester, where she is a member of the programme team for the Masters in Student Engagement in Higher Education run by the Centre for Student Engagement.
Catherine’s impact has also been recognised through having been awarded Principal Fellowship of Advance HE, Fellowship of the Staff and Educational Development Association, a Universitas 21 Staff Fellowship, and a Best Research Supervisor Award. At the University of Edinburgh, Catherine leads the Institute for Academic Development Programme and Course Design team, she established and led the University’s Learning and Teaching Conference for four years, growing the conference from 300 to nearly 900 delegates. She leads the University’s Student Partnership Agreement and associated Funding Scheme, she is Convenor of the Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme, and she is co-chair of the large-scale Curriculum Transformation Programme, Student Engagement Strategy Group, (alongside the Vice President Education from the Edinburgh University Students’ Association).