Specialties

religion, public policy, law, sociology, social theory, adolescents, education, educational technology

Interests

social justice, educational technology, law, travel, politics

Education

Emmanuel College, Boston

Catherine's studies at Emmanuel focused on adolescent and young adult development in psychology and on Christianity and social justice in religious studies. She has a broad understanding of feminist, liberation and mainstream theologies as well as a deep understanding of the history of social and moral teachings within the Catholic Church. In addition, her work with adolescents provides a solid background on teaching these types of materials to middle and high school aged populations.

Harvard Divinity School

While a student at Harvard, Catherine focused her studies on a deeper understanding of social justice, feminist and other liberation theologies, and systematic theology. Her understanding of the social and moral teachings of the Catholic Church are deep. Additionally, Catherine worked on contemporary topics at the time, such as examining the role of religious institutions in response to welfare reform, involvement in politics, and other topics of the day.

Northeastern Univeristy

Catherine grew her existing body of knowledge during her study at Northeastern, expanding her work on social justice and religion out to a broader societal context. Specifically, through interdisciplinary studies in the areas of law, public policy, and sociology, she examined issues related not only to social justice but also to societal responses. Her coursework included graduate level sociology, microeconomics, and public policy, as well as concentration courses in the law school on women and the law and law and sexuality. Her dissertation focused on the role of the law and social norms in the lives of same-sex couples. This study looked at the critical intersection of personal decision making and law, public policy and shifting social norms. Catherine's dissertation involved both qualitative and quantitative research and analysis, focus groups, individual interviews, and a web-based survey.

Framingham State University

Catherine has completed the coursework for her M.Ed. in educational technology and will take the exam in Spring 2018. She focused her studies on adult education, but also critically examined the use of technology in the K-12 classroom. She was able to draw on her undergraduate studies in developmental psychology and previous work with adolescents to complete challenging assignments for a variety of academic subjects as part of the requirements for this degree.