Catherine studied architecture at Manchester University and at the Polytechnic of Central London. Her experience before setting up in private practice was in-depth and varied, with periods spent with Robert Barnes, Ron Herron, HTA Architects, van Heyningen & Haward Architects and Conran Design Partnership, where she worked on a variety of award-winning education, housing, restaurant and master-planning projects. In 1998 she formed Burd Haward Marston Architects with Buddy Haward and Lucy Marston. After a break having children and travelling, Catherine returned to work, re-forming Burd Haward Architects in 2004 with Buddy Haward.

Alongside practice, Catherine has taught and lectured widely. She ran degree studios at SouthBank and Westminster Universities, and has been invited critic at a range of architecture schools, including the AA, Cambridge, Greenwich, Kingston, London Met, Liverpool and UCL. She has lectured on the practice's work at the RIBA, the Goethe Institute, the Architecture Foundation and the University of Virginia, US.

Catherine is an experienced critic and assessor, and has served on a wide range of judging and assessment panels, including BD Architect of the Year, RIBA Awards, RIBA Manser Medal, NHBC Housing Awards and Civic Trust Awards. In 2009 she was appointed as a member of Design Council CABE's National Design Review Panel where she regularly assesses nationally significant housing & mixed-use urban proposals.