In recognition of her volunteer service as president of the Metro DC chapter of PFLAG, she received the Starr Award, the national organization's top honor for exemplary leadership by a parent in the local community. Co-founder and past co-director of the Gender and Sexuality Advocacy and Education Program at the Children's National Medical Center, she now serves that program as senior consultant. Advocates for LGBT people in their Jewish community, Catherine and her husband, Jonathan Tuerk, live in Washington, DC, where they raised their son and daughter and now entertain their five grandchildren.