About me

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

Personally speaking? I spend my time dancing, poking around second-hand stores, and wishing I could keep my indoor plants alive.

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 primarily for the Director of Public Prosecutions and, on secondment, at Legal Aid ACT. In 2016 she was named ACT Young Lawyer of the Year.
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.
She sat on the Governance Committee of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre from 2012-2017.
She has continued to tutor in both Evidence Law and Criminal Law at the ANU Law School since 2016, and is now also the convenor of the Prison Legal Clinic.

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 has regularly written for the Sydney Morning Herald and other mastheads.
Katrina has a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, and is undertaking a PhD at The University of Sydney.
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 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.
She was made Chair of the ACT Sexual Assault Prevention Working Group in 2022, and appointed to the National Respectful Relationships Education Expert Working Group in 2023.
She lives and works on Ngunnawal country, and does not subscribe to the chronic underestimation of Canberra.

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.

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