About me

A potted history of my professional life features courtroom advocacy, policy and law reform, research, public commentary, teaching and further education.

Personally speaking? I’m an ambivert – sometimes pensive, sometimes exuberant, but rarely dull.

  • Katrina Marson graduated from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws (Honours) in 2012. She majored in Gender Studies in her Arts Degree, and her Law Honours thesis argued that the criminal justice system fails to reduce the incidence of unwanted sexual experiences for young Australians, compared to preventative education methods which are more effective.
  • In 2012, Katrina was awarded the Maree Ayers Prize for Criminal Justice and the Tillyard Prize for outstanding contribution to university life by the ANU. In 2013, she was named ANU Student of the Year.
  • She went into legal practice as a Criminal Lawyer, working for the ACTDirector of Public Prosecutions since 2013, including in the family violence and sexual offences units. She spent a year of that period on secondment at Legal Aid ACT as a Criminal Defence Lawyer. In 2016 she was named ACT Young Lawyer of the Year.
  • Katrina sat on the Governance Committee of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre between 2012 and 2017, and tutors in Criminal Law and Evidence Law at ANU.
  • In 2018, Katrina was appointed Director of the team responsible for implementing the criminal justice recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sexual Abuse in the Australian Capital Territory. Legislative and policy reform to improve access to justice for victims of child sexual offending were the focus of those recommendations.
  • In 2020 she was named a Policy Impact Program Fellow in the inaugural program launched by the Winston Churchill Trust and the University of Queensland’s Centre for Policy Futures.
  • She writes and speaks publicly in the area of law reform and policy, as well as relationships and sexuality education (see research and media page for more information).
  • Katrina is a contributor for the Sydney Morning Herald.
  • Katrina has a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, and is undertaking a PhD at Swinburne University.
  • She was the Lead Researcher for primary prevention projects at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy, and is a member of the World Association for Sexual Health.
  • In 2020, she established the Relationships and Sexuality Education Alliance in the Australian Capital Territory.
  • In 2022 Katrina published her first book – Legitimate Sexpectations: the power of sex-ed
  • She delivered a TEDx Talk on the power of relationships and sexuality education in Brisbane, Australia in 2022.
  • Katrina was appointed a member of the Australian Government Respectful Relationships Education Expert Working Group in 2023.
  • She lives and works on Ngunnawal country.

Katrina was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2018, and in 2019 travelled to Europe and North America researching the implementation of relationships and sexuality education to safeguard sexual wellbeing.