Catherine Kearney L’22

Cat Kearney is from Baltimore. Prior to law school, she worked in Baltimore on psychological research on the effects of childhood and intergenerational trauma for six years. From this work, she developed an interest in addressing the systems that inflict this trauma on so many, especially the criminal punishment system. She received her Bachelor of Arts in History from University of Pennsylvania in 2012 and her Masters in Clinical Psychological Science from University of Maryland in 2018.

At Penn Law, she is involved in the Youth Advocacy Project, a pro bono project that assists the Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project on cases of youth facing charges in the adult system. She also participates in the Prison Abolition Reading Group, a discussion group with Penn, Temple and Drexel law students. Last summer, she worked as an intern at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services. Following law school, she hopes to work as a public defender.