Advocacy

Welcoming the ARB and NCARB to the British Consular Residence, New York City

Diplomacy

International Relations

In the capacity of RIBA-USA President and latterly as RIBA Director of Strategic Development, North America, Catherine has liaised closely with the British Government in the USA and Canada for many years.

The shared aim is to bring together the UK and US Architectural community through joint events across professional institutes and regulators, and by sharing opportunities across both sides of the Atlantic.

RIBA Canada

Through membership engagement and local events, Catherine has helped create the RIBA’s Canada Chapter. This is an online and in-person forum where members across the region can share their experiences, find alliances and community.

From British Columbia to Toronto, Catherine worked with the local members to also build bridges to the in-country professional institutes and regulators.

In April 2025 Canadian and British architectural regulators signed the Mutual Recognition Agreement for professional mobility between the two countries.

Catherine helped bring this to a wider audience by working with the RIBA team on an article on architecture.com

Mutual Recognition Agreement

Being a dual licensed UK and US architect, Catherine is a great believer in professional mobility. As such, in her role as President of the RIBA-USA, she advocated for a change in legislation which enables architects to work between the UK and the USA.

The Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) was signed in April 2023 after many years of meetings with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office in and UK Dept of Trade and Industry based in the United States and latterly with the US and UK regulators, NCARB and the ARB. See timeline below.

The MRA enables the flow of architects and their ideas between these two countries which have parallel but diverse modes of practice. This is increasingly important as both countries and many others around the world face more extreme weather events, a shortage of affordable housing amongst many other challenges that architects are able to contribute their expertise to help solve.

In April 2025, Catherine worked with colleagues at the RIBA and the AIA to publish an article on the MRA between the UK and the USA regulator’s two years after it was signed.

The article includes interviews with American architects based in the UK and vice versa, and how the MRA was to navigate and how it has impacted their professional lives.