She holds a PhD in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina, USA. Her research interests are in violence prevention from the perspective of children's development, and particularly in public health approaches to this. Cathy serves on the Steering Committee of the University of Cape Town's Safety and Violence Initiative, an interdisciplinary research initiative that seeks to understand violence and promote safety. The Safety and Violence Initiative is a member of the World Health Organization's Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA), and Cathy herself co-leads the VPA Parenting Project Group with Christopher Mikton from WHO and Theresa Kilbane from UNICEF. In addition, she is on the Editorial Boards for the South African Crime Quarterly, Psychosocial Interventions, and Child Abuse and Neglect journals.