Katherine McDonnell is a PhD candidate in the School of Sociology and Political Science at NUI Galway. Her research explores how the various exercises of power in the business and human rights field impact access to remedy through non-judicial grievance mechanisms, and how communities mobilize to challenge that power, helping to operationalize the right to remedy for business and development-related harms. She uses a transdisciplinary and participatory research methodology. 

Katherine also works as a legal advocacy consultant, with over seven years experience focusing on access to remedy for business and development-related harms through both judicial and non-judicial mechanisms. In her time at EarthRights International, Katherine led the development and piloting of a model for a Community-Driven Operational level Grievance Mechanism (CD-OGM), working alongside community leaders in Myanmar as they designed and negotiated a grievance mechanism to address the impacts of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (TSEZ). She also worked closely on the development of the Foreign Legal Assistance strategy, which utilizes a U.S. federal statute to obtain discovery for proceedings in other jurisdictions. While at Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL), Katherine supported CAL’s work around Human Rights Legal Design as a way to develop new strategies for corporate accountability. She currently collaborates with International Accountability Project’s Global Advocacy Team in the next stage of their work.

Katherine holds a B.A. from NUI Galway, an M.A. in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law.