Cate’s passion is for working with service providers and community to empower people to make sense of complexity and lead their own change.

Cate drives ThinkPlace vision and wisdom projects. These projects are complex, cut across many systems and require a long-term vision for change that balances design that is both fast and slow.

Design that is fast is disruptive and provokes new thinking. It connects with the global pace of change and technological innovation. Design that is slow seeks the wisdom of culture and deep time. It is responsible and generative, aligns effort across different systems and seeks to deliver long-term impact that is meaningful and enduring.

Cate works on projects around the world, with different communities, service providers and governments. She has worked with communities experiencing the impacts of climate change and exacerbated poverty, leading to critical health challenges for women and children.

She has also worked with communities impacted by colonisation who experience the symptoms of intergenerational trauma and disadvantage. Cate feels privileged to walk alongside change makers who have a deep understanding of place, people and culture, and the vision and determination to create value for the next generation.

Cate is a cross-disciplinary designer and design educator. Her strengths are in both conceptual thinking and making. She can lead the design of innovate new models and make them tangible and real. Working with Cate is fun, she provokes new thinking and inspires confidence.

Cate has a Bachelor of Architecture, along with a Master of Graduate studies in Cross Disciplinary Studies, majoring in anthropology, development, social research and cultural studies. She also holds a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Cate has taught as a Design Educator at the University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney and Canberra Institute of Technology.