About
As a professional firmly embedded in the community, Catriona has worked with hundreds of autistic people and their families for over 20 years. Underpinning her work is her experience in community engagement, Equality and Inclusion, Human Rights and her own lived experience. She was made an OBE in 2020 for her services to Autistic women.
About Dr Catriona Stewart OBE
Her PhD, completed in 2011, focussed on the lived experiences of autistic girls, and anxiety. She founded SWAN (Scottish Women’s Autism Network) in 2012, and received her diagnosis of autism the following year.
She continues to research into the experiences of autistic people, including in aging, with Herriot Watt and Goldsmiths universities, and autistic women’s experiences of gender-based violence with NHS Tayside and UWS.
Catriona has been an advisor to a number of high level national enquiries, including the 3 year National Autism Project (UK) (2015-18) and the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act, Scotland, for Autism and Learning Disability (2017-2019). She was an Advisor, regional Chair and Ambassador to the Scottish Government’s Improving Understanding of Autism #DifferentMinds campaign.
She has delivered numerous training programmes and workshops, including for NHS, Scottish Government, National Autistic Society, Police Scotland, Studio III and in as diverse places as Inverness, Birmingham, Shetland, Singapore and Spain. Nationally and internationally, Catriona has delivered many academic papers and conference plenary talks.
In April 2020, she was invited by Human Rights lawyer, Lord John Scott, KC, to join his COVID-response Independent Advisory Group to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA). She was appointed to the Board of the SPA April 2021 and served for 4 years.
Catriona lives in Argyll, Scotland.