Catherine Costaggiu
Programming Director
She joined the Professional Women’s Association of Rome in September 2019. She strongly believes in giving back, the power of a network, the need of linking women’s minds across cultures, women’s empowerment, and the urgent need to break the glass ceiling. She is strongly committed to serving PWA’s mission and members and is confident to have both the professional and personal skills to do so successfully.
Professionally, Catherine is an international arbitration lawyer with over 5 years post-qualification experience in a first-rate New York-based law firm, trained to work under pressure and provide efficient solutions to complex issues. Prior to joining the private sector, she interned at the European Court of Human Rights and at the International Development Law Organization, where she had the chance to be exposed to different projects related to women’s empowerment. Catherine has lived and studied in countries with different cultural backgrounds. She is a Ph.d. candidate in International law & Economics at Bocconi University (Milan, 2020), a University of Turin graduate (J.D. with honors, class of 2009), a Columbia Law School graduate (New York, class of 2015), a Fulbright scholar (2014-2015), a McGill University alumnus (Montreal, 2008), and a former Universidad de Buenos Aires visiting research scholar (Argentina, 2018/2019). She is half Italian, half Bulgarian, a native speaker of Italian and Bulgarian, speaks fluently English, Spanish and French and has a basic knowledge of Russian.